Judgement delivered in festival strip search class action

Following a class action led by leading law firm Slater and Gordon and Redfern Legal Centre, a judgement was today handed down in the Supreme Court of NSW which awarded significant damages to the lead plaintiff, Raya Meredith, for an unlawful strip search undertaken by NSW Police at the Splendour in the Grass Festival in 2018.

Slater and Gordon Senior Associate in Class Actions William Zerno, said justice had today been delivered for Raya Meredith, with implications for thousands of others in the class action.

This landmark case is the largest class action to have been brought against any police force in Australian history,

Mr Zerno said.

"While we are yet to be provided with the lengthy written judgement, what is already clear is that mere indications by police drug dogs, or a suspicion of drug possession, are insufficient to justify a strip search by police.

"Justice Dina Yehia found the training, education and supervision provided by NSW police to officers conducting searches was wholly inadequate.

The implications of these findings alone will likely render thousands of police strip searches of young people at music festivals to be unlawful. It is also likely to have implications for the lawfulness of strip searches conducted outside of a festival setting.

"Slater and Gordon is now urging the State to bring this shameful chapter to a close by negotiating a settlement for the remainder of the group.

"If a sensible settlement cannot be achieved, the costs to the State will be far higher."

Mr Zerno praised the courage of Raya Meredith.

Raya bravely stood up for her rights, and in the process has been successful in leading the largest ever class action against police.

"Raya went through a degrading and humiliating experience at the hands of NSW Police. She was directed to remove a tampon during the course of a search and a male police officer entering the searching area when Ms Meredith was in a vulnerable state of undress. Unfortunately, her experience was not unusual.

This case was hard fought and won. Raya was the only person to give evidence at trial. Extraordinarily, not a single police officer gave evidence in the trial defending the practice, which impacted thousands of young Australians.

The Court has now made clear that when Parliament provided NSW Police with the extraordinary powers to strip search citizens, it was intended that these powers were only to be used in serious and urgent circumstances.

"However, the evidence led in this proceeding was that the NSW Police undertook searches on an industrial level at festivals and with little or no regard to the legislative safeguards which are intended to check the use of these extraordinary powers."

Concerns around these searches had been the subject of a number of inquiries by the NSW independent police oversight body, LECC, in State Parliament and by groups like Redfern Legal Centre and the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties.

The judgement was critical of the State of NSW for the way they defended this claim and awarded aggravated damages to the plaintiff in respect of this issue.

"This litigation was very hard fought and saw the defendant bring unsuccessful applications to declass the action, strike out pleadings and to compel disclosure of group member identities and contact details. The latter was the subject of an unsuccessful application to the Court of Appeal," Mr Zerno said.

Samantha Lee, Supervising Solicitor, Police Accountability at Redfern Legal Centre said:

"The courage of young people has driven this action."

When no government stood up for them, they stood up for themselves. When no government took care of them, they took care of themselves.

"The case sends a clear message to NSW Police - hands off young people and children's bodies."

"You can no longer ask a young person to take off all their clothes, stand naked in front of strangers with firearms and make them squat and cough on the suspicion of minor drug possession."

"This action does not right the wrongs. This action does not remove trauma."

"This action does not restore the dignity that was taken from young people."

"What this decision does is provide a path to monetary compensation and a sense of justice to thousands of young people, children and adults who were unlawfully strip-searched."

"It acknowledges that what happened to them was wrong."

Slater and Gordon and Redfern Legal Centre commenced the class action in July 2022 brought by Raya Meredith on behalf of people who were forced to be strip searched by NSW police at music festivals from 2016. The class action has to date had more than 3,000 people register with thousands strip searched across the claim period.

Anyone who was subjected to a strip search by NSW Police at a music festival between 22 July 2016 and 21 July 2022 can still register their interest with Slater and Gordon here.

Slater and Gordon confirmed today that they were also investigating the prospect of bringing a further class action for persons searched at festivals from July 2022 and encouraged people to register at the link below.