Two NSW police officers attacked naked woman suffering mental health episode

The Guardian

10-07-2025

A naked woman suffering a mental health episode was punched, kicked, dragged by her hair and pepper-sprayed by two New South Wales police officers who have admitted using unlawful force.
Senior constable Nathan Black and constable Timothy John Trautsch were in plain clothes when they made a welfare check on a 48-year-old schizophrenic woman at Emu Plains on January 22, 2023.
Court documents reveal the woman had been prescribed an antipsychotic but was not taking the medication at the time.
Black, 28, and Trautsch, 30, first talked to the woman - who cannot be named for legal reasons - and tried to get her into an ambulance.
Video footage played at a sentence hearing at Penrith District Court on Thursday shows the pair's violence escalating during an 18-minute assault against the woman.
She was pushed onto the road, kicked twice in the head, dragged along by her hair and punched.
At one stage, the two officers struggled trying to handcuff her on the ground as she lashed out with her arms.
She was also sprayed six times with pepper spray – also known as OC spray – twice in the face and once on her back, which was grazed after she fell onto the road.
'That can be done for no other purpose than the infliction of pain, to spray OC onto a lady's back who has been at various stages dragged or fallen onto the floor,' crown prosecutor Nicholas Marney said.
Some of the pepper spray got onto her genitals, the court was told.
The woman's shrieks and sobs were full of expletives at the two officers.
'God, make me strong. God, make me strong,' she said over and over. 'God, please. I'm sorry I didn't listen. I'm sorry, God.'
At one stage, the woman defecated on the road and on Black's leg. 'Wash your dirty stinky arse,' one of the officers was heard saying.
The two men discussed using a Taser and long baton, while Trautsch was at one point seen laughing.
The officers could have restrained the woman or just talked to her but instead chose violence, Marney said. 'It should never have got to that stage, they had an obligation,' he told Judge Graham Turnbull.
There was no threat posed as the two men were able to contain the woman by pushing her onto the road, he argued.
Even though the woman grabbed for handcuffs, this did not require kicking her in the head, Marney said.
'You have to do what you have to do,' Black told medical staff when the woman was taken to Nepean Hospital in western Sydney.
Speaking to a psychologist who gave evidence to the court, Black and Trautsch both claimed they were experiencing long-standing mental health challenges at the time of the incident.
Black pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, using a prohibited weapon without a permit and three counts of common assault.
He also admitted two counts of intentionally publishing protected information after sending snippets of the body-worn footage to another police officer.
In a message exchange, he described how the pair had emptied two cans of pepper spray on the woman. 'The whole body worn [footage] is so good shows her being fucked,' he wrote.
Trautsch pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, three counts of common assault and one count of using a prohibited weapon without a permit.
Both officers no longer work for NSW police.
The woman died due to unrelated circumstances 18 months after the attack.
The sentence hearing continues on July 15.
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.