Timothy Trautsch and Nathan Black appeal sentence for assault on mentally ill woman

Two former police officers who bashed and pepper sprayed a naked, mentally ill woman are appealing their jail sentences, arguing they only used the spray to gain the “upper hand” during the woman’s psychotic episode.

Former senior constables Timothy Trautsch, 30, and Nathan Black, 28, were jailed last year over their treatment of the woman who was experiencing a psychotic episode in Emu Plains on January 22, 2023.

The pair were found to have kicked and stomped on the 48-year-old woman as she lay on the ground.

Black pleaded guilty to possessing or using a prohibited weapon without a permit, common assault and two counts of intentionally publishing protected information.

He was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, with a non parole period of three years and three months.

Trautsch pleaded guilty to possessing or using a prohibited weapon without a permit and common assault.

He was sentenced last August to five years and six months in prison, with a non parole period of three years.

Now, a year later, in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday, the pair appeared on screen from custody for joint appeals over their sentences.

Barrister Simon Buchen SC told the court while they acknowledged the episode was “hard to watch” in CCTV footage from the incident, they submitted there was an underlying reason for the officers to use the OC spray.

“What could OC spray achieve in that context … the inference is available that it would place the victim in sufficient discomfort so that they were able to get the upper hand and place the handcuffs on her,” Mr Buchen said.

Mr Buchen argued the two constables were struggling to reach the woman’s hands as she sat in the gutter in order to place the handcuffs on her.

“To use the OC spray … was to place the victim in a temporary state of discomfort … is the objective of that type of policing instrument so that these police officers could get the upper hand and bring her under physical control,” he said.

Mr Buchen also said NSW District Court judge Graham Turnbull “believed erroneously” that a forensic psychiatrist expressed scepticism about Black’s PTSD diagnosis.

However, Mr Buchen said the doctor agreed with the consensus that he had PTSD from experiences that he faced as a young police officer.