Calls for Charges Against Lawyer Hannah Thomas to be Dropped and Police be Charged with Assault

Sydney lawyer Peter O’Brien has called on NSW police to drop the charges against his client, lawyer Hannah Thomas, after having recently viewed police body-worn video that clearly shows a male officer punching the 35-year-old woman in the face, as she was acting in the capacity as a legal observer at an early morning protest on Bidjigal land in the Sydney suburb of Belmore.

The fallout from the police assault which caused grievous bodily harm to Thomas has been considerable, as the early morning attack upon the former Greens candidate, who ran against PM Anthony Albanese in seat of Grayndler in the May 2025 federal election, has resulted in an eye injury so serious the lawyer may never see out of it again.

These calls are not only for the charges against Thomas to be withdrawn, but for the police officer responsible to be charged with assault over his use of excessive force.

Multiple pieces of footage capturing the 6 am NSW police response to the small, peaceful 27 June 2025 rally in front of the Belmore SEC Plating premises three weeks ago, reveals NSW police turning up the force applied to a group of pro-Palestinian protesters so liberally that it suggests the officers had been emboldened to take a heavier approach when dealing with antigenocide agitators.

Initial footage of the early morning incident emerging online showed an officer grabbing a woman by the throat, while others tossed a protester along the pavement, and it was in amongst all this that Thomas, as a legal observer and a lawyer, questioned the legitimacy of move-on orders being issued by police officers, and, as has now been revealed, she was punched in the right eye for her troubles.

The police assault upon Thomas has been a travesty that the state law enforcement agency has exacerbated at every step in its wake. This has included downplaying the incident, failing to initially call it critical, and charging Hannah under emergency riot laws that weren’t in operation.

Indeed, there has been complete institutional denial of just how grave a fuckup this has actually been.

Assaulted and overcharged

The Herald revealed on Monday, 14 July 2025 that not only has O’Brien seen the footage and is satisfied that there’s no point in the prosecution proceeding with the charges against his client, but an anonymous senior NSW police officer has too told the masthead that he’s seen the footage, and that Hannah was “punched in the eye”, which flies in the face of the version NSW police assistant commissioner Brian McFadden has put out there.

On the day of the event, and prior to the full extent of the police assault upon Thomas becoming public, participants in what was to be a peaceful protest had been outraged by NSW police having swooped in, questionably issuing move-on orders, and then going on to apply excessive force to civilians daring to question the legitimacy of the policing powers they were attempting to exercise.

Section 197 of the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW) (the LEPRA) provides NSW police with the power to order civilians to disperse from an area under certain conditions. Multiple protesters at the SEC Plating rally questioned why they were being issued, and it appears one officer didn’t appreciate lawyer Thomas querying the authority to issue an order.

Thomas’ lawyer is now calling for the two charges laid against his client’s name to be dropped, after an officer allegedly punched her in the face, causing grievous bodily harm and permanent damage.

After copping a punch to the right eye, Hannah has now been charged with failing to comply with direction, contrary to section 199 of the LEPRA, which carries a maximum penalty of a $220 fine, and the lawyer continues to face a second count of resisting arrest, under section 546C of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which carries up to 12 months imprisonment.

The NSW Police Force charging a civilian that it appears one of its officers has assaulted is par for the course. However, in Hannah’s case, the cops took the matter one step further and charged her under laws usually reserved for rioters, seemingly because it had sunk in that punching a legal observer in the face with such force that the injury was clearly severe was not a good outcome.

So, just for good measure but without much forethought, NSW police initially charged Thomas with refuse to comply with a direction given in accordance with this section, contrary to section 87MA(4) of the LEPRA. This is similar to the regular offence of failing to follow a move-on order, but it only applies after a senior police officer has called an emergency incident, and it carries a fine of $5,500.

The 2005-enacted offence is contained within part 6A of the LEPRA, which holds emergency powers that can only be unlocked by senior police, when a large-scale public disorder is taking place. Yet, the four protesters arrested alongside Hannah copped the regular section 199 LEPRA charge.

So, when it was realised early last week that Thomas’ charge sheet bore a rioting offence, even though these powers were not in play at the time of arrest, McFadden then downgraded this emergency charge to the regular minor offence of failure to follow a direction on 7 July.

This questionable scenario further played out after the initial backlash over the NSW police assault had been so powerful that the state law enforcement agency declared a critical incident investigation of it late on Monday, 30 June, which means police will inquire more thoroughly into the incident, and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (the LECC) will oversight the probe.

Police run wild

Hannah’s lawyer O’Brien says it’s “not ordinary” for a legal professional to step in and comment on a client’s criminal matter in the manner that he has done, but so “stark and serious” are the concerns raised by the “objective evidence” involved in the BWV footage that he finds taking such action warranted under the circumstances.

“This is especially so where comments have been made by senior police officials and politicians downplaying the gravity of the incident, apparently justifying police actions and comments that have been detrimental to my client’s position,” the criminal defence lawyer further told SMH.

The most high profile political comment came from home affairs minister Tony Burke, who suggested that “no one was above the law” following the incident, and while certainly no one was suggesting that Thomas, who copped a punch in the face for querying an order, was, there are serious questions being raised about whether NSW police officers are distinctly emboldened to act beyond the law.

Activist groups, including Weapons Out of the West, returned to the Belmore SEC Plating premises last Friday, to continue their campaign against the Australian company they claim exports plating used in the construction of F-35 fighter jets that are used in the commission of genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, as well as to demand that cops refrain from attending such direct actions.

NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson has added her voice to calls demanding that the charges against Thomas are dropped, and she considers that NSW police assistant commissioner McFadden must stand down. The lawyer is also calling on the state’s police watchdog, the LECC, to take over the investigation of the matter.

“Now the evidence is clearer, I am calling for the actual offenders, the police, to be charged and those members of the community who were lawfully protesting for peace, who were assaulted, harmed and wrongly arrested, detained and charged by police to be released from further persecution,” Higginson outlined in a press statement on Monday, 14 July 2025.

The Greens justice spokesperson said that the ever-changing case is now in the territory of “malicious prosecution, police violence and serious police misconduct”, which begs NSW premier Chris Minns to step in and take control of the fallout before the public loses more confidence in the NSW Police Force.

Assistance commissioner McFadden had stated on Sunday, 29 June 2025, just two days after Thomas was punched in the face by a police officer that he’d “had a preliminary review of the body worn video with a number of commanders and one of our operations experts” and that there was no information at that stage that “indicates any misconduct on behalf of my officers“.

“Police assistant commissioner Brett McFadden must stand down and an investigation into his conduct be established,” Higginson made certain on Monday. “McFadden has misled the public, ignored evidence, laid incorrect charges, made inconsistent statements, engaged in victim blaming and taken the case in the wrong direction.”