NEWS

Organisers of a Black Lives Matter rally held in Melbourne during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions will no longer face prosecution, with all charges against them expected to be dropped by Victoria Police.

Defence lawyers are scrambling to identify potentially thousands of cases involving Victorian police, who never had the power to act as officers, following an error that the government says will be fixed with retrospective legislation.

The state’s corruption watchdog has been accused of failing to act on police brutality, after clearing officers who stomped on the head of a mentally ill man and struck him with a police car outside a Melbourne hospital last year.

A Melbourne policeman has been charged with three counts of unauthorised disclosure of police information after allegedly sharing video footage of a friend’s former partner after he pulled her over for speeding. The woman’s lawyer, Jeremy King, said his client planned to launch civil action on the basis of malfeasance in public office.

Six days after being taken into police custody, Aboriginal man Sony Ray Austin’s spinal cord was severed and he was rendered a quadriplegic. Sony’s injury is the basis of a lawsuit brought by firm Robinson Gill, which often represents people injured during interactions with police.

State Coroner John Cain’s inquest into Mr Richards’ death in custody has allowed The Age to piece together his final moments, who was in charge of the 48-year-old’s welfare and how he came to die in the hands of those called to help.