Australian court permanently halts case against police over Taser and pepper spray use on vulnerable man

A Queensland district court has permanently stayed the prosecution of two senior constables charged over their use of force against a First Nations man held in police custody.

Andrew David Couchman, 54, and Ulrich Weiss, 45, were charged following an incident at the Mareeba watch house in far north Queensland in January 2024. The man, 23 at the time and diagnosed with schizophrenia, had asked for paracetamol from his cell. During the encounter he was sprayed with capsicum spray through an opening in his cell door, Tasered four times, and left restrained in an isolation cell. The court noted he had been aggressive and had tried to spit at officers.

Investigation flaws

Judge Dean Morzone found that the investigating detective had inserted a claim into the man's statement saying he "did not consent" to being Tasered, sprayed or restrained — wording the man never actually used in his interviews, and which he was later shown not to understand. At a pre-trial hearing, the complainant himself said officers had done what was necessary.

Prosecutors argued the trial should proceed regardless, citing the public interest in protecting vulnerable detainees and maintaining confidence in police oversight. Morzone rejected this, ruling that a fair trial was no longer possible because the false consent claim struck at a core element of the charges.

The judge acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations, involving unlawful force and detention of a mentally unwell Indigenous man, and said the public was entitled to see such cases tried before a jury. However, he concluded that while CCTV and body-camera footage documented what happened, it could not reveal what the man understood or consented to, and the tainted statement made a fair trial impossible.