This week, the Supreme Court of New South Wales delivered a landmark judgment against the NSW Police Force for unlawful strip searches. The class action was brought by lead plaintiff Raya Meredith on behalf of all people unlawfully strip searched at music festivals between July 2016 and July 2022.
The court found Meredith’s strip search was unlawful. It also found there was “a gross failure” by police to follow the law, caused by “wholly inadequate” training and supervision of police in the exercise of strip search powers. This resulted in “a flagrant disregard of the rights of the plaintiff”.
