[i990] AEPDT 3 IN THE FEDERAL POLICE ) ) No. 11 of 1989 DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL ) BETWEEN: COMMISSIONER OF POLICE AND: BRIAN RONALD DAVIS / REASONS FOR FINDING KELLY J. (President) 1 JUNE 1990 IN THE FEDERAL POLICE ) ) No. 11 of 1989 DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL ) BETWEEN: COMMISSIONER OF POLICE AND: BRIAN RONALD DAVIS ORDER THE PRESIDENT (KELLY J) 1_ JUNE 1990 CANBERRA, ACT THE TRIBUNAL FINDS:- 1. Brian Ronald Davis, a member of the Australian Federal Police, guilty of a disciplinary offence specified in paragraph 18(1)(d) of the Australian Federal Police (Discipline) Regulations, namely, disgraceful conduct otherwise than in his official capacity, in that on 1 July 1989 at Belconnen in the Australian Capital Territory, he assaulted Constable Blizabeth Quade. By Notice dated a September 1989 the Deputy Commissioner (Administration) of the Australian Federal Police instituted proceedings against the respondent, Constable Brian Ronald Davis, alleging that he had committed a disciplinary offence specified in regulation 18(1)(d) of the Australian Federal Police (Discipline) Regulations (the regulations). It was alleged against Constable Davis that he had engaged in disgraceful conduct otherwise than in his official capacity in that on 1 July 1989 he assaulted Constable Blizabeth Quade at Belconnen. Within the prescribed time, Constable Davis notified the Commissioner that he did not admit the truth of the disciplinary offence alleged and requested that the matter be dealt with by the Tribunal. The matter was investigated by Detective Superintendent Gary Ian Griffiths of the Internal Investigation Division of the Australian Federal Police. At 1.45pm on 1 July 1989, Superintendent Griffiths began an interview with Constable Quade, an interview which was recorded. A transcript of the interview was tendered and _ became Exhibit "C". In due course she verified it on oath before me, as did all the witnesses who made statements. to Superintendent Griffiths and who appeared before me. The transcript shows that Superintendent Griffiths received a phone call at about 4.00am on 1 July 1989 from Acting Superintenent Evans who informed him that Constable Quade was at the Belconnen Police Station and had alleged that she had been assaulted by Constable Davis at the Blind Beggars Inn. Asked by Superintendent Griffiths to tell what had happened, Constable Quade replied, So "We arrived there [at the Blind Beggars Inn] about 11.00pm I was with members of my squad and Darren' Rath. About, it would have been approximately 1.00, 1.30 when I saw Brian Davis at the corner of the Beggars, near the kitchen. He was there for quite some time and he approached me and we had a conversation. He asked, he was saying how much he disliked Darren, Darren Rath ..... then I told him to stop talking like that and I told him that we should all, the three of us should all sit down and sort the whole thing out when we're all sober and get it all out of the 'air, we'd get it all clear once and for all. He then walked about from me and moved his, so he knocked a drink out of my hand. I ignored it and Darren, ..... come over and spoke to me and I told him exactly what Brian had told me. Just after that ..... Darren and Brian had a conversation just outside the kitchen door. I'm not sure of the conversation, I was speaking to Mark Bayliss but I knew, it appeared to be a heated conversation. Brian then left and Darren come over and relayed the conversation to me. ..... Darren told me that Brian had ..... said that he was going to kill him, it might not be today, it may be some other time but he was going to kill him. I'm not sure of the other parts of the conversation, Darren didn't tell me, he just told me that Brian told him he was going to kill him. Then I, about ten minutes later I was sitting on a stool and Darren was next to me, once again outside the kitchen door and Brian headed over towards me and I saw him coming, I saw him out [of] the corner of my eye and I could see that he was, he appeared to be very, very angry. I stood up, as I did so he punched me, he was looking straight me (sic), he stood straight in front of me and hit me with his right fist to the nose and the mouth. He only hit me, he hit me the once. I fell backwards, I didn't hit the ground, I stumbled and the next thing I knew I had blood coming out of my nose and I was being taken out of the Beggars. I don't, I can't tell you anything in relation to what happened after that. Questioned further, she was unable to give the exact time of her arrival at the Blind Beggars Inn. She said that there was a big crowd at the Inn but so far as she was aware, Constable Davis was drinking by himself. There were quite a number of police officers present. She said that she thought his action in knocking the glass from her hand -3- had been a deliberate action. She said that he knocked it out with his body. He "sort of lurched and knocked it out as he went". She said that after the incident when the glass had been knocked out of her hand she spoke to Constable Rath about it and both agreed to ignore the incident. She then said that that was when Constable Davis came up and talked to Rath. She was just standing there with another police officer. She said that Davis and Rath had what appeared to be a heated conversation. At that point there was an interruption in the interview. Upon resumption Constable Quade said, when asked what happened after Rath had spoken to her, "Yeah that's Brian Davis punched Darren, they went apart from Mark Bayliss and myself and had a conversation, I was watching them _ closely because there had been threats made previously by Brian towards Darren. I was watching, I could hear, I could tell that it was a, there was a heated conversation and it lasted for a couple of minutes and then Darren walked, they both separated and Darren come back over to where we were. And that's when he told me that Brian said that he was going to kill him." She then said, "After that Darren stayed, we went back over to the table and I sat down and it would have been about, I don't know where Brian was at this time. He come back over and that's when I saw him, saw him rushing over and I stood up and that's when he hit me." She said Davis stopped and hit her deliberately. She described the blow again, "Well he walked over, I stood up and I _ was standing, I was standing on the side, to his side, I was standing on my side and he and to my left. He come and walked in, he was walking very quickly and he come up and stood straight in front of me so he had to turn his body and looked at me straight, straight in the face and then hit me with his right fist." = She said his fist was closed. In cross-examination Constable Quade made reference to incidents which seemed to indicate a degree of ill feeling between Constable Davis on the one hand and Constable Rath and her on the other. She instanced an occasion when she said that Constable Davis had approached her at the Pavilion Hotel and there said to her, "Revenge is a sweet kind of justice. Just remember that." It seems to me to be unnecessary to decide whether or not this incident occurred. Constable Davis denied that it had but at best it is peripheral to the question I have to decide. Constable Quade also agreed that she had had, from approximately 8.00pm the evening before the incident, eight to ten middies of full strength beer, two drinks of Tia Maria and a cocktail. She was, she said, at the time of the incident slightly to moderately affected by alcohol. I think she was more than slightly affected and the evidence of the other witnesses establishes to my satisfaction that she could properly be described as moderately affected by alcohol at the time of the alleged assault but I do not think that she was so affected as to be unable to give an accurate account of the events that happened on _ that morning. Constable Rath made a statement to Superintendent Griffiths. It too was tendered. He said that about 2.45am on the Saturday morning he had a conversation with Constable Davis after Davis had spoken to Constable Quade. The conversation between Davis and him -5- took place after Constable Quade had had a drink knocked out of her hand. Constable Rath said that during' the conversation, which he described as an aggressive one, Davis expressed dislike of him and stated that but for the condition of his hand (Constable Rath had broken his arm some short time previously and it was in a cast on the morning in question) 'he would have hit him or done some violence towards him. Davis, Rath said, then came over to where Rath was and said that he wanted to speak to him. Constable Rath said that the two had words. Constable Rath took the conversation as amounting to an invitation to fight and suggested to Davis that they should go outside. He said that Davis then walked away and began to speak to other people. A couple of minutes later Rath saw Davis coming straight towards him, apparently in an agitated and aggressive mood. He said something like "You've brought my brother into it". Constable Quade, at that point, was standing beside Constable Rath. He said that Davis came up to Constable Quade and he saw Davis punch her once with his right hand in the face, in the vicinity of the nose and the mouth. Constable Quade staggered backwards and a scuffle developed between Davis and Rath. Constable Rath described himself as being slightly to moderately affected by alcohol. He estimated that between 8.00pm on the evening before and the time of the incident he had consumed between 10 or 15 middies of full strength beer. He described Constable Davis as well affected by liquor but well aware of what he was doing. He said that =6= there had been a history of ill feeling between Davis and him and I accept that this was so both from his. and Constable Quade's evidence and that of Constable Davis. Constable David Charles Hall was present in the Blind Beggars Inn on that morning. He had gone there with Constables Quade, Cartwright and Rath, having previously attended a squad dinner. He said that he had probably had a maximum of four or five drinks at the restaurant where the squad had had the dinner. At about 3.00am he was drinking "coke" (he had planned to drive one of the members home). He considered himself to have been sober, having been drinking "cokes" all night. Obviously he excluded the drinks he had had with dinner. He described Constable Davis as having been moderately affected by liquor but said that he was nowhere near heavily intoxicated. He described the incident with Constable Quade as follows:- ",..at the time I was sitting down next to a table. I had my back to say the southern wall of the Blind Beggars Inn and probably about three metres to my right...a small kitchenette and there is a swinging door there, a white swinging door. I was sitting next to a table facing a female who I was talking to and the bar itself would have been probably about three and a half to four metres to my right. At that stage I was sitting down talking to this particular female and I knew or I had seen beforehand Constable Rath and Constable Quade were to my right about two metres basically in front of the swinging door I believe. And they were facing, I suppose, the general direction of the bar. I was talking to this female when...something caught my eye...a very quick movement. Usually everything is pretty slow and stuff like that in any nightclub and if there is any sort of quick movement it's either someone racing out or a fight in progress or something like and at that stage immediately I looked around. I didn't see any sort of altercation between any persons. All 2J= I saw was basically Constable Davis was in front of Constable Quade and when I looked around the movement that I saw was just the moment of impact basically where I saw him hit Constable Quade in the face. When she was hit she went reeling back towards the bar and towards my front and at that stage I didn't care what happened to the others. My main concern was Constable Quade and because she had been hit and pretty hard by the way that she fell backward or fell to my front. I went up to her and she was pretty hysterical by that stage so I just grabbed her basically and sort of forced her out:the back through the swinging doors and at that stage there was a lot of noise and stuff and a lot of commotion around where Constable Rath had been standing so I believed that at that stage there was an eruption of fists and stuff like that between a number of people." He said that Constable Davis had struck the blow with his right hand. He saw that Constable Quade's nostrils were bleeding slightly. He took her out the back and got a handkerchief and some ice to see if there was any swelling. He saw nothing done by Constable Quade to _ provoke Constable Davis. Before the actual moment of the blow, he had not been paying any particular attention to them. The female to whom he had been talking was Sister Allison Cook. He described her as sitting basically directly opposite him so that she had her back to the front of the Blind Beggars Inn but her left side was "sort of facing the area where the incident took place". Constable William Paul Cartwright also made a Statement to Superintendent Griffiths. That statement began at 10.35am on 4 July 1989. He confirmed that he had been at the Squad Dinner at the Delphi Restaurant where he had perhaps nine or ten beers. He had perhaps three or four middies at the Blind Beggars Inn and would have described -8- himself as moderately affected by liquor. He said that Constables Quade and Rath were affected to approximately the same degree. He saw Constable Davis at the Blind Beggars Inn when he arrived and formed the opinion that he was moderately to well affected. He believed that as the night wore on his condition did not vary for the worse. He described the alleged 'assault as he saw it:- "I was standing in a position away from the corner of the bar more or less towards the fire door in the Beggars which is a couple of metres away from where Liz Quade and Darren Rath were Standing. I was talking to other people at the time. I saw [Constable Quade] Standing in a position beside a table almost directly next to the door leading out to the kitchen area of the Blind Beggars' Inn. I. saw Constable Davis approach her. A short exchange of words took Place from what I could see and I then saw him strike her. I'm not sure whether it was a closed fist or an open hand, a back hand, to the face area. I saw Constable Quade reel back sharply, almost falling over. People went to her aid straight away and she was obviously hurt by the blow." He was not in a position to hear the exchange of words which took place between Constable Davis and Constable Quade. He had earlier seen Constable Davis anda Constable Quade engaged in a conversation which did not appear to be very friendly and he saw Davis dislodge the drink from Quade's hand. He said that this had been done by Davis, using his hand, ana appeared to him to be deliberate. Then he saw an exchange of words between Davis and Rath. He had been about to intervene but when he saw Davis and Rath exchanging words he decided to let it go. Later he was asked, "When Constable Davis walked across and struck Constable Quade what did he actually do, did you see him sort of lining his fist up or closing his a: fist or was there an indication there that an assault was imminent or?" He replied, "Well I was perhaps a few metres away and I was watching him walk across to her. As he got to her, as I said, there was a short period took place where they may have exchanged words. I'm not sure and then I saw a deliberate strike from his hand to her face." Asked with what force the blow was inflicted he said, ' "The hand wasn't actually drawn back but it was sort of from a side on position so it was a fair hit. I'd say, I mean it would have caused pain to anybody who it struck as far as I could tell." He saw a couple of other police who were there go to Constable Quade's assistance. He saw Rath and Davis begin to exchange blows but only briefly. He thought they hit each other. He said that he saw nothing done by Constable Quade which might have provoked Constable Davis to assault her or to dislodge the drink from her hand. Detective Sergeant Brian McDonald also made a statement to Superintendent Griffiths. The statement began at 10.58am on 5 July 1989. He described the incident, called by him "the affray", as follows:- "I was present in the bar when I _ saw Constable Rath standing over near the swinging door leading to the kitchen at the back of the bar. He waS approached by Constable Davis who threw one punch at him which didn't hit him flush. At that stage I moved in between the two of them and attempted to separate them." He had seen Constable Rath earlier in the company of Constable Quade. He said that a short time earlier he had seen Davis and Rath talking but that just after that they had walked away from each other. He did not know what -10- caused the affray to start. He thought the conversation may have been a little bit heated but that it was definitely not a confrontation, just a conversation. It was put to him that from enquiries which had been made, it appeared that if the assault took place on Constable Quade it happened just prior to the affray occuring between Constable Rath ana Constable Davis. 'He was then asked did he have Constable Davis in his vision before he punched Constable Rath and he said that he did. He said that he did not at any stage see Davis walk over and punch Quade in the face. He said that he would have been in a position to see that had it happened. He agreed to the suggestion that it could have been possible that during the affray between Davis and Rath, Constable Quade could have been accidentally struck in the face. He was asked had that happened would he have seen it and replied, "probably not". When he got in between the two men trying to break them up it was a bit of a scene and it wasn't easy so it was quite possible that he wouldn't have seen it. He had not seen the incident where the glass was knocked out of Constable Quade's hand. He described Constables Davis, Rath and Quade as all moderately affected by liquor. They said that they were in command of their faculties and knew what they were doing. He was then asked, "Now could it have been possible for Constable Davis to have struck Constable Quade in oe that night and you wouldn't have seen He replied that his understanding was that Constable Quade had been hit immediately prior to the fights commencing and if that were the case he said he would have seen it. = Cross-examined by Mr Salmon of Senior Counsel for the respondent, Sergeant McDonald said that after the fight was all over he had had a fair bit of contact with Constable Cartwright who had constantly said that he was not going to leave until something was done. He could not remember the exact words but they were along the lines that Cartwright was not going to leave until criminal charges were laid against Davis. He adopted, said Sergeant McDonald, the same attitude at the police station. Sergeant Malone made a statement in which he said that he saw Constable Brian Davis move quickly towards another group of police who were there including Constable Rath and Constable Quade and then he saw an affray take place. He didn't see any particular person get hit or anything like that. He said that it was all over very quickly as a result of his intervention and that of a couple of other people. Kim Leanne Durie also made a statement. She said, "I was just sitting down talking to my girlfriend and her boyfriend and I sort of heard something in the background and I turned, looked around and I saw Liz coming towards us, and she had blood coming out from her nose, and I saw quite a few guys having a scuffle about 10 feet from me." She was then asked, "When she came towards you what happened then? What did she do?" She replied, "She just said that I'd been punched and was hysterical and started crying and more blood just kept coming from the nose." She did not see her actually punched at any time. After that she said that just more people kept coming into the me fight trying to pull them up and that was all she saw really. In cross-examination she reiterated part of what she had said in her statement. She said that Constable Quade said, "I have been punched" and that she became very upset and was crying. Ms Durie said that she had only a couple, two or three, drinks that night. Allison Cook made a statement also. She said that she was at the Blind Beggars Inn in the early hours of 1 July 1989 in company with Constable Hall. She saw Constable Rath sitting on a bar stool with Constable Quade standing beside him. She said that she saw the other man involved a few metres away from them. He hit Rath on the left side of the jaw and that's all she saw. She did not see Constable Quade get hit at all. She saw Constable Hall take Constable Quade out the back. She was sure that Constable Rath was punched by the other person before Constable Quade was taken away. She thought it possible that a punch could have ricochetted from Constable Rath's jaw onto Constable Quade. She explained her conjecture about this possibility as, "Just the way that they were standing. That's probably what would have happened because I didn't see Liz was standing beside Darren when he got hit." She did not see the punch which struck Rath ricochet and hit Constable Quade. She agreed that it was only supposition on her part. She was then asked, "When you were seated talking to David Hall, were you in a position to have seen Liz if she was hit?" She re This a was th She re She wa She re record Superi -13-— plied, "No, she was, they were at my side sort of three or four metres away." ccorded generally with Constable Hall's evidence. She en asked, "So would it have been possible for Liz to have been hit by this person and you not have seen it?" ; plied, "Probably, yes." s then asked, "So as far as you, and don't let me pre-empt your answers, but as far as you know this person just walked over and punched Darren?" plied, "That's what I interpreted it as yes." Mr Salmon relied heavily on a short passage from the of the interview which took place between ntendent Griffiths and Miss Cook. The passage was as follows:- Q44 Q45 "So it is possible that this person could have come over and punched Liz without you actually seeing it...you would have had to have looked to your left to see what was happening? Well I was looking that way when he actually came over and hit Darren. Right. I think if he'd have cause Liz was right beside him and if he'd have hit Liz before they must think the trouble would have started before that and I would have noticed." Mr Vucetic made a statement and was cross-examined but I do not think he added anything to the material upon which I can act. -14- Constable Davis gave evidence. He described himself as between moderately to well affected by liquor. He referred to the conversation which Constable Quade had with him during which there was discussion about Constable Rath, He said that earlier he had separated Constable Rath from a Male person with whom he had become involved in an altercation. He referred to the relationship between Constable Rath and himself. I am satisfied on all the evidence that that relationship was not a happy one. He referred to the conversation which I am satisfied took place between Rath and him, the heated conversation to which Constable Quade deposed. He then said, in response to a question as to what had happened after that, "I'd walked away. I had another drink. I can recall that. The conversation between Constable Rath, I saw him talking to Constable Paul Cartwright who I know. And then an argument had developed between Constable Rath and myself. We were standing about a metre away from each other and along the same subject as before, I should leave him and Liz alone and that he wasn't scared of me and he'd fight me any time. And I hadn't paid much - that wasn't a lengthy argument. It was that time that I was grabbed on the collar of my short sleeved shirt and I struck out at Constable Rath." Constable Davis alleged that Constable Cartwright had struck him on the right temple. He said that he could not recall knocking a glass from Constable Quade's' hand. If that had happened it had happened accidentally. He denied that he had assaulted Constable Quade at any time during the morning of 1 July 1989. He pointed out that -15- he was a big man, well over six feet in height and weighing a little over 16 stone and that had he struck Constable Quade he would have inflicted a great deal of harm upon her. I am satisfied by the evidence of Dr Wilkins who examined Constable Quade at about 4.45am on 1 July 1989 that the injuries sustainéd by Constable Quade, who appeared unaffected by alcohol when seen by Dr Wilkins, consisted of a small, very tender lump on the left of the nasal bridge, local redness and swelling extending onto the cheek with early bruising evident below the eye on the left. There was dried blood and some ooze in the left nostril and an abrasion within the mouth just behind the lip on the left cheek. The injuries appeared consistent with the stated cause which was that she had been struck a single blow to the face by her assailant. Mr Gary John Venables, a public servant and part-time employee at the Blind Beggars Inn at the relevant time gave evidence that he saw Constable Rath involved in a scuffle with Constable Davis. He said, "At one stage there Mr Davis attempted to throw a punch and - which was obviously aimed at Darren. But in the second or two before he did that, Liz Quade intervened and copped the force of the punch in the face." He said, "Mr Rath was standing approximately - he was right behind her at this stage because she had sort of squeezed in between the two gentlemen. He held her. And then they more or less went out the kitchen door." He saw no blow struck by either Rath or Davis before the one that struck Ms Quade. He said in cross-examination that « -16= Rath and Davis were holding onto each other, "hands on Opposite hands". He noted that Rath had an arm in plaster and assumed that it was broken. He was quite definite that Constable Quade had moved her body in between the two men. He said that he had had a statement taken in October and that he had put in that statement all that he had told the Court. He said that Constable Quade must have broken Mr Rath's and Mr Davis' arms apart so that she could have got in between them. It is significant that nothing like what Mr Venables said had happened was put to any of the witnesses by Mr Salmon and I do not accept his evidence. The situation therefore boils down to this. Constable Quade, Constable Hall, Constable Rath ~ and Constable Cartwright gave direct evidence of having seen Constable Davis strike Constable Quade on the face. Constable Davis denies it. Sergeant McDonald gave evidence that he saw Constable Davis walk up to Constable Rath and strike him a blow on the face but that he did not see Constable Davis strike Constable Quade although, he said, he would have been in a position to do so had that been done. He also said that had the blow to Constable Quade been struck just before the altercation between Constables Davis and Rath commenced he would have seen it. He acceded, it will be remembered, to a suggestion that it was possible that during the altercation between Constables Davis and Rath, Constable Quade could have been struck accidentally in the face. Miss Cook, too, states that, had Constable Davis a by fe struck Constable Quade before the altercation between Constables Rath and Davis began, she would have noticed it. Much was made of the fact that the several witnesses who gave evidence and who drew sketches of the scene differed in their visual interpretations of the location of the incident. The onus of proof which the Commissioner carries in this case is proof " beyond reasonable doubt. I have therefore to be satisfied to accept the evidence of the witnesses Constables Quade, Rath, Hall and Cartwright over the evidence of Constable Davis and the evidence of Sergeant McDonald and Miss Cook. After consideration of all the evidence, and after seeing the witnesses under cross-examination and very careful reflection, I am Satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Constable Davis did strike Constable Quade as she said he did and that therefore he assaulted her. It seems to me to be of great significance that Ms Durie said that immediately after the incident Constable Quade said, "I have been punched" and was very upset. True it is that had Constable Davis struck Constable Quade with all his strength he must have done more damage than was occasioned her but I think the probability is that he struck her a severe semi-backhand blow, not enough to carry with it the force which a full-blooded punch would have but enough to cause the damage she sustained which, although relatively minor, was significant and enough to cause her to be driven backwards and sink down without falling or, alternatively, that his timing was affected by the large quantity of alcohol he had consumed, perhaps as =18= much as 18 middies and certainly no less than 12 middies of beer during the hours' preceding the incident. He acknowledged that he had consumed a large amount of liquor. I discount the differences between the sketch plans which were prepared under cross-examination. They reflected, I think, the state of sobriety of Many of the witnesses who drew them and I do not think any particular importance is to be attached to them, Constable Davis was not an impressive witness. I had the opportunity to observe him all through the hearing. On the other hand, Constable Quade was, and although there may have been animosity between Constables Rath and Cartwright on the one hand and Constable Davis on the other (and for this reason I do not place as much weight on their evidence as I might have otherwise have done) I found Constable Hall to be an impressive witness who had no reason to display any animosity towards Constable Davis. I think the Tribunal's task would have been much easier had the questions asked of the witnesses during the course of the investigation been, in many instances, in less leading form. Questions of that type, during the course of such interviews, do not help in the elucidation of the truth and in my opinion ought not to be asked. Constable Quade's exclamation within the hearing of Ms Durie that she had been punched carries with it conviction because it is a spontaneous expression of what had happened to her immediately before in circumstances where one would expect her to be telling the truth. It may be that it was not strictly part of the res gestae, although -19- I think it was, but I am not bound by the rules of evidence. It seems to me, however, to have that degree of spontaneity of the kind which, although rejected in R v Bedingfield (1879) 14 Cox CC 341 in a decision now overruled by the House of Lords in R v Andrews [1987] AC 281, carries its own conviction. A passage from the headnote of Andrews' case is significant. It states the following proposition i which is supported by the judgment:- "Where the victim of an attack informed a witness of what had occurred in such circumstances as to satisfy the trial Judge that the event was so unusual or startling or dramatic as to dominate the thoughts of the victim so as to exclude the possibility of concoction or distortion and the statement was made in conditions of approximate but not exact contemporaneity, evidence of what the victim said was admissible as to the truth of the facts recited as an exception of the hearsay rule." (at pp.281-2). See also Ratten v The Queen [1972] AC 378. I appreciate, of course, that I am required to exclude the possibility of error on Constable Quade's part and, indeed, on Ms Drurie's part. Having found Constable Davis guilty of the assault on Constable Quade, I am satisfied as a matter of law that it constituted disgraceful conduct otherwise than in his official capacity. The mere recital of the facts sufficiently characterises the conduct. Accordingly I find Constable Brian Ronald Davis guilty of the disciplinary offence charged. I certify that this and the 18 preceding pages are a true copy of the Reasons for Finding herein of his Honour, Mr Justice JJA Kelly, President of the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal. lla Associate Dated: 1 June 1990