'Nice and slow': woman battles tears describing police strip-search to inquest
A young woman has fought back tears recounting a police officer saying "I'm going to make this nice and slow" while she was strip-searched at a Sydney music festival.
Giving evidence before a coronial inquest into the deaths of six young people at NSW music festivals, the 28-year-old said she was left feeling "humiliated" despite nothing illicit being found.
"You’re naked ... the way I was spoken to, [I was] like I'd done something wrong," the woman told Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame on Thursday.
The woman said she had been strip-searched at two different festivals, once of which was Knockout Circuz at Sydney Olympic Park, the same festival at which 18-year-old Nathan Tran fatally overdosed on the party drug MDMA in December 2017.
The circumstances of his death and the deaths of Alex Ross-King, 22, Callum Brosnan, 19, Joshua Tam, 22, Joseph Pham, 23, and Diana Nguyen, 21, are being scrutinised by the inquest, held at the NSW Coroners Court in Lidcombe.
The woman, whose identity has been suppressed, said she was walking into one of the events with her ticket in her hand when a police officer tapped her shoulder, telling her she had been indicated by a sniffer dog.
"They made me walk through the crowd and everyone was staring at me," she said.
"They made me put my hands together ... I let go of my hands and they yelled at me."
The woman said she was taken to a female officer who said, "tell me where the drugs are ... the dogs are never wrong, so tell me where the drugs are".
"I was like, 'I don't have any drugs'," the woman said.
"She was like, 'why do you look so nervous, what are you hiding?' I said, 'nothing, I've never been in a situation like this before'."
"I had to take my top off and my bra, and I covered my boobs and she told me to put my hands up, and she told me to tell her where the drugs were.
"She said 'if you don’t tell me where the drugs are I’m going to make this nice and slow.
"She made me take my shorts off, and my underwear, and she made me squat and cough, and squat and cough, and squat and cough, and I had to turn around and squat and cough."
The woman said the officer searched her bag and found her boyfriend's wallet, which was then given to another police officer.
"She opened the door while I was still naked and handed the wallet to someone else then made me stand there for a bit," she said.
The festivalgoer said music festivals "used to be fun" but the high presence of police and security made it an intimidating experience that had caused some people she knew to consume illicit drugs before going into the event.
The woman, who was at the same festival at which Mr Tran fell fatally ill, said she saw him trip over a group of patrons and remain on the ground for a couple of minutes.
She said he was picked up by security guards before being handed over to police, one of whom grabbed Mr Tran by the neck and punched him in the head.
Barrister James Emmett, acting for the NSW Police Commissioner, put to the court that her memory wasn't accurate.
"This is the truth," she said back.
The inquest heard on Wednesday Mr Tran was behaving erratically and aggressively due to the effects of MDMA.
The inquest continues.