The Offence of Assaulting a Police Officer in New South Wales

A 27-year-old woman was arrested on Gadigal land at her Potts Point residence on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, as part of the ongoing investigations of Strike Force Laine, which is the New South Wales Police Force probe into the participants of the 9 February 2026 civil society protest against the official visit of Israeli president Issac Herzog, which involved the deployment of 3,000 police officers.

The 27-year-old was then taken to Kings Cross police station and charged with several offences, including assault police officer in the execution of duty, hinder or resist police officer in the execution of duty and possess prohibited drug. NSW police will allege that the woman was found in possession of some cannabis when they apprehended her.

As NSW Police News explained, the policing of the planned public assembly against Herzog’s visit in Sydney’s CBD was the subject of a major police operation that involved “officers from across the metropolitan region assisted by specialist units”, and the event was significant as protesters had sought to march on the city streets, despite an official blanket ban on street marches being in place.

The police news item failed to outline that 20,000 demonstrators had lawfully rallied in front of Sydney Town Hall on the night of 9 February and when they continued to seek to march, 3,000 police officers unleashed a huge display of police brutality upon them, which was unprecedented in recent memory, and both NSW ministers and senior police have refused to apologise for this.

On the same day that NSW police arrested the Potts Point woman, they also arrested a 31-year-old woman from Kellyville at her home and charged her with offensive behaviour. The woman from Potts Point was granted bail on being charged at the Kings Cross police station, and she is set to appear before the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, 5 May 2026.

Assault police officer

The Potts Point woman will face one count of the offence of assaulting a police officer under subsection 60(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. The offence encompasses the acts of assaulting a police officer, throwing a missile at them, or stalking, harassing or intimidating them.

This crime occurs while the officer is acting in the capacity of a police officer, whether or not they are on duty. An assault includes putting the officer in fear of imminent personal harm, as well as unauthorised touching of the officer which is intentional or reckless. No bodily harm needs to be inflicted on the officer. 

In fact, the maximum penalty increases to 7 years in prison where actual bodily harm is occasioned to the officer, which is harm that is more than ‘transient or trifling’ and includes bruises, abrasions and lasting scratches.

It increases to 12 years in prison where grievous bodily harm is occasioned to the officer, which is ‘really serious harm’ and includes any permanent or serious disfigurement, he destruction of a foetus, other than by a medical procedure, and any serious bodily disease.

To prove the offence of assault police against the 27year old woman, the prosecution will have to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that she intentionally or recklessly made unauthorised physical contact with the officer or caused them to fear immediate and unlawful violence, whilst they were on duty and the police officer involved did not consent.

This basic offence was inserted into section 60 of the Crimes Act in July 1997. At the time, it was accompanied by the subsection 60(2) offence of assault police officer and cause actual bodily harm, which carries 7 years, along with the subsection 60(3) offence of recklessly wound or cause grievously bodily harm to an officer on duty that can see a person liable to up to 12 years prison.

Following various other amendments, section 60 of the Crimes Act today is entitled “assault and other actions against police”. Subsection 60(1A) contains an aggravated form of assault police, which involves the act being perpetrated during a public disorder, and the crime carries up to 7 years.

The subsection 60(2A) offence is an aggravated form of assault police officer and cause actual bodily harm, during a public disorder, and it carries up to 9 years prison time, whilst the aggravated form of recklessly wound police officer or cause them grievous bodily harm, during public disorder, sits in subsection 60(3A) of the Crimes Act and it carries up to 14 years inside.

Subsection 60(4) of the Crimes Act sets out that any of these offences that have been perpetrated against an existing police officer while they weren’t on duty continues to hold against the perpetrator, if the crime was perpetrated in response to an action the officer had undertaken on duty or if the offence against them was committed because they hold the position of police officer.

Defence against a charge of assault police

A number of defences are open to the 27-year-old Potts Point woman if they align with the circumstances surrounding the actions that NSW police has charged her with assaulting one of its officers in relation to.

The first is the statutory defence of self-defence, which sits under section 418 of the Crimes Act. Self-defence maintains that the defendant believed their conduct was necessary to protect themselves or someone else, or to prevent the unlawful deprivation of their liberty or someone else’s, or to protect against property damage or criminal trespass.

In this case, it implies that the woman allegedly assaulted the police officer to protect herself or someone else from the specific officer perpetrating violence against them.

The Potts Point defendant also has the defence of duress open to them. This would entail the woman putting to the court that she perpetrated the action that has been called out as a crime, as she was trying to avoid a much greater harm to herself or a loved one. And the court would need to establish that the threat being avoided warranted breaking the law.

Another key defence open for the Herzog protester to raise is the defence of necessity, which would posit that the woman had conducted herself in the manner in which she did against the officer in order to prevent more dire circumstances from developing, which would likely have occurred if she didn’t act in the manner in which she did.

Punishing those assaulted

Many criminal defence lawyers in Sydney will explain that NSW police has a tendency to charge those allegedly assaulted by police in circumstances like a protest with the offence of assault police. This then tends to blame any physical interaction that occurred between the officer and the civilian, as the latter’s fault. The practice also has the effect of deflecting from an officer’s acts of aggression.

The two arrests on 25 March that involved the woman from Potts Point and another from Kellyville were followed by two raids on Herzog protesters the following day. They’re also alleged to have broken the law during the commotion that ensued after the NSW police unleashed excessive force and brutality upon the protesters in a seemingly planned and sanctioned manner.

In the aftermath of the police brutalisation of the civilian crowd, the NSW premier, the police minister and the police commissioner have all refused to apologise for the actions of law enforcement on the night and have instead insisted that officers did what they had been asked to do.

So, many constituents are now questioning why these civilians are being tracked down and arrested over alleged crimes against the police, when the reels of footage capturing law enforcement illegally assaulting the crowd have simply been ignored.

And against this backdrop, the scenes of the provocative NSW police arrests of the Herzog protesters at home weeks after the event, are further understood to again be attempts to deflect from and pin the illegal assaults of civilians by police upon the victims themselves.