This Copper thought it was within his rights to use prisoners as his personal punching bags and torture/ crashtest dummies…Thank god for video in the stations these days, who would believe a tourist over a senior constable. Enjoy your time in jail you pig. I Hope some remember you from the “Old” days….
VIDEO TO FOLLOW
Former Senior Constable Benjamin Price, 34, was yesterday sentenced to 27 months prison by Townsville District Court judge Stuart Deward but will be eligible for parole next July.
Among the attacks he rammed a fire hose down a handcuffed man’s throat during a brutal bashing in a police station.
Price was sentenced after pleading guilty to four counts of assault against three victims in Airlie Beach, in north Queensland in 2007 and 2008.
In sentencing Mr Deward described Price as a “thug” and his actions as “cowardly and contemptible”.
He will be eligible for parole after nine months, in July 2011.
In sentencing, Judge Stuart Durward condemned his actions as “gratuitously violent, callous and contemptible”.
“Your actions were grossly excessive. You abused your authority.”
Earlier court appearance story
A FORMER Queensland police officer allegedly bashed and kicked a handcuffed tourist unconscious before nearly drowning him by jamming a fire hose into his mouth.
Former senior constable Benjamin Thomas Price, 32, yesterday faced Proserpine Court for committal on six counts of assault on three victims.
Police whistleblower Constable Bree Sonter broke down in tears as video of the alleged attack outside Airlie Beach police station was shown to the court.
The emotional father of the alleged victim stunned the court as he stood and yelled: “You’re a brave man Price, I hope you get a fire hose jammed up your a – – – in jail”.
Timothy Steele, 24, a plasterer from NSW, suffered a broken nose, black eyes, a head wound, hearing problems, memory loss and lack of sensation in his arms and hands after his arrest in the popular Whitsundays tourist town on May 24 last year.
Price allegedly dragged Steele from the car outside Airlie Beach watchhouse, repeatedly punched him and “kicked him with his boots” in the face, breaking his nose.
CCTV video footage from the police station shows a dazed, heavily bleeding Steele being dragged into an alley beside the watchhouse. It shows the handcuffed man being punched in the head before having a fire hose jammed into his mouth, where it was held for up to 90 seconds as another officer watches.
Steele screams and groans in agony and blood can be seen sheeting down the concrete path as the policeman stands on the handcuffs, pressing his hand into the back of the man’s neck, forcing his head into his lap in a brutal spine lock.
“I felt like I was going to drown,” Steele told the court.
“He jammed the hose into my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. I was coughing and spluttering blood. It was pretty scary. It went on for a long time.
“I called him a pussy. He knocked me about. I was pretty dazed, I’d had a boot to my face, my nose was broken. I was choking on my own blood, I felt like I was drowning.”
Constable Sonter, now based at Sandgate, broke down as she told how she could hear Steele screaming for help.
“I could hear Price yelling ‘you like that’ and then a smack sound, it sounded like a punch, and Steele went quiet,” she told the court.
The strongly built former officer, who now works as a tree-cutter, also allegedly repeatedly punched another man in the face during an argument about urinating in public.
He also is accused of assaulting tourist Renee Tomms.
Price, who has not yet entered a plea, is represented by Queensland Police Union barrister Steve Zillman.
Aussie Criminals and Crooks 
Australia is a country with state police and their double standards. If a typical citizen bashed a tourist and rammed a fire hose into her mouth, the associates would be charged with an accessory to Grevious Bodily Harm. We are too tolerant for Police Brutality. Remember the LA riots back in 1988. Maybe we need to have a riot, too.
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What about the police officers who stood around and assisted in the attacks, have they been brought to book?
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Hi Phillip, Well the female copper in the footage, she was the whistle blower, but I’m not sure what has happened to her.It seems the females who worked with this thug were all scared of him. I can see why . I will follow it up…cheers
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The whistle blower was transferred to another command after she made the complaint. After a short time she was then transferred to Internal Affairs. The story goes she was harassed by co-workers at the command she transferred to for making a complaint and other officers didnt want to work with her.
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Has this cop been on a fully tax payer funded salary since? unfortunately that’s what happens here in NZ.
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I have lived in Airlie for 20 years now and knew this shithead. He was a copper to be feared, he was known to be cruel and unjust to tourists and locals. He was a big guy and had stand over tactics,you could never give cheek to him or he would smash you.
I hope he gets a thrashing in prison, there were many others including myself that got a belting from him. He knew where I lived and I was dead set scared of him.
Rot in prison you horrible pig.
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Hi Karen I bet now this asshole is In the bighouse others like you might speak out. It was pretty obvious that this was normal bevaviour for him. With more evidence and witnesses to other incidents he should of got longer…. Maybe the cops didn’t dig too deep for fear of being caught out themselves…cheers
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Hey Robbo,
Thanks for your reply. After all the publicity myself and at least six others have spoken out. He targeted young adults too. My son at the time was 17 , urinating in an alley way, got smacked in the side of the head and required six stitches. I hope others can speak out now , not be afraid and make sure this guy gets what he deserves. The coppers up here are more calmer now and doing the job assigned to them. I still have faith in our police here, it seems this is the wake up call they needed. The next copper to take things into there own hands may step back and look at Benjamin Price as an example.
Your website is FANTASTIC and I will continue to use it and recommend it to others. Thanks for your honesty.
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Hi Karen
Im pretty close to this case. Timothy Steele went to all the solicitors in Airlie Beach asking for legal representation after he was tortured as Benjamin Price charged him with 2 counts of assaulting an officer. All refused to represent him. He had to hire a solicitor from Gladstone. Maybe they were scared of Benjamin Price? Im not sure but either way justice for Timothy was alot more expensive (had to pay solicitor travel rates). Eventually the charges were dropped when the solicitor requested the video in Timothy’s defense.
In the end of the day Benjamin has ruined his family (he declared bankruptcy after mortgaging his house to buy a business which failed) and left a trail of broken victims. I hope his family doesnt suffer anymore because of his actions.
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Well thank you, it is great to know people read the stuff I put up, but even more rewarding is when people come on here and have something to say because they are involved in the situation. I am glad to hear the police and settled down up there too. We often hear about all the whiners complaining about CCTV as an invasion of privacy, but if you have not done anything wrong why all the fuss I say? (Although we do hear of perv’s etc putting them in change rooms etc.That is awful)
Because those same whiners would be the first to throw a tantrum when CCTV wasn’t around to catch the thug who bashed their son Johnny out for a good night on a Sat night.
Thanks for enjoying the site and I always welcome people with something to say…cheers
Rob
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Thumbs up to you Robbo,
Should be more people like you,reporting it as it comes. Had lots of bad publicity up here of late, cyclone in March, copper Benjamin Price and now Daydream Island with photos and videos of tourists. We need to get Airlie back on track, we need tourism dollars and good feedback. Lets hope all this bs is behind us now and we can move on to being the Happy tourist town we are known for.
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YOUR A LENGEND
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“Sam says:
October 15, 2010 at 9:07 pm
The whistle blower was transferred to another command after she made the complaint. After a short time she was then transferred to Internal Affairs. The story goes she was harassed by co-workers at the command she transferred to for making a complaint and other officers didn’t want to work with her.”
Hi Sam, thanks for that update mate,that answers a few questions…much appreciated
Robbo
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I hope the boys in the pig house look after him, I am so disgusted watching the assaults. Bloody idiot. Hope more people watch this and remember him for what he had done- he won’t have a normal life- the man is a psychopath.
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Hi Alex, yeah he was (is,actually, will never change) a coward with a badge, I wish he would of been treated as a nobody and in with the general population to see how tough he is…Although I imagine he will be a protected species in there at our expense and all he will do it contain all that anger until he gets out. Probably work as bouncer somewhere for cash and continue to be a thug…It certainly straightened out the other cops up there from what I hear
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He deserved a harsher sentence. The courts need to deter further police officers from using the same excessive force and brutality. Such actions, especially from the police force, should not be tolerated. Bree Sonter should be recognised for speaking out, what she’s done in standing up against this type of misconduct is truly commendable. Another thing id like to mention is the audio sound from the CCTV footage which was released to the public was wiped, due to how horrific the screaming and cries for help were. This was done by the Queensland police to protect themselves and make there actions seem less brutal
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This scum should have gotten 10 years minimum in with the normal prisoners. Let’s see how tough he is then. Gutless wonder, anyone else that beat and tortured a cop for example would have gotten more than 27 months. He’s going to be out on parole in June or July.
They have made the penalties for assaulting a cop higher. What about cops assaulting citizens??? A cop should instantly be given 10 years as a minimum for anything like this. Anyone aloowing this to go on even passively are equally guilty. If there are 2 instances the cop should be given life. There is no excuse for this behavior. It’s a sad indicment on the scum that are getting into the force.
I hope everyone at Airlie beach is writing to the partole board to stop this mongrel getting out one second early.
Every other cop including the whistle blower should be sent to jail also for not stopping the abuse as soon as they became aware of it. Anything less than that and they are also equally guilty. They are supposed to uphold the law. This includes their co workers. Otherwise they are encouraging this type of brutality.
If the cops are afraid of another cop how on earth can they say they will protect us from the crooks.
All the cops that were involved in this or were aware of it are also gutless, spineless worthless scum with no concern for the people they should ne serving and protecting.
I hope Ben has got a friendly cellmate with a firehose of his own. How tough do you think he’d be without having his victim handcuffed. I’d love to see him crying like a little girl. The gutless bully with a badge. Well he’s screwed himself , the force and his family. Well done you gutless mongrel.
Phreddy
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Anyone can become a police officer…anyone!!!
Usually attracts people with low self esteem,pedos,rapists,drug dealers and takers,wife bashers,thieves and liars.
Start cleaning out these low life scum from the top.
The Australian people are not taking this crap any longer.
We are tracking you down one by one and have everything done to you while being filmed.
Google… Tribute to survivors of child sexual assault by law enforcement officers.
Google…Cato Institute.
Finally your time has come.
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Now this guy has turned up in Canberra and trying to hide from his past…………. Although it does seem there is someone following him to see where he turns up and let people know. Interesting.
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