A Byron Bay, Australia police officer has been charged with assault after allegedly Tasering and hitting a 16 year old teenage boy with a baton 19 times in January 2018.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) found the officer used "inappropriate use of excessive force" against the 16-year-old outside Nomads Backpackers.
The boy was said to have been naked and intoxicated when police approached him in the early hours of January 11.
A Future Court Attendance Notice was issued to the officer for the offence of common assault. He will face Byron Bay Local Court on December 2.
In March, the LECC held a public hearing to consider whether five officers involved in the boy's arrest engaged in criminal conduct or serious misconduct, after video footage of the arrest - in which the boy was also capsicum sprayed - was shown on A Current Affair.
The boy, who was on holiday in Byron Bay with his family, is heard telling arresting officers in the footage, "I'm not resisting."
The LECC ultimately found that, while four of the officers had not engaged in misconduct, the actions of the fifth - given the pseudonym Officer E - amounted to "serious misconduct warranting serious consequences".
"It is obvious that Officer E's intention was to beat [the boy] until he complied and, even when he was handcuffed, Officer E did not desist," the report said.
"No doubt he subjectively believed that he was entitled to do what he was doing but objectively he acted unreasonably and with grossly excessive force."
The officer's use of force was deliberate, unreasonable and "significantly beyond a mere error of judgment", the commission found.
The officer maintained throughout his questioning that the degree of force he used was necessary.
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