NSW admits pro-Palestine protester Hannah Thomas was assaulted by police officers and falsely imprisoned

The state of New South Wales has admitted that a police officer punched Hannah Thomas in the eye while holding a torch at a pro-Palestine protest – and it’s offered to pay her medical costs.Court documents seen by Guardian Australia reveal that the state has admitted to false imprisonment and battery in its defence to a civil action launched by the former Greens candidate in October.NSW has denied claims of malicious prosecution and malfeasance in public office.Thomas was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney in late June 2025 that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating.Three months later, the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) dropped all charges against Thomas and three other protesters.The now 36-year-old was taken to hospital after she was punched and underwent three rounds of surgery on her right eye. The statement of claim reveals she weighed 45kg and was 156cm tall at the time of the battery.In her claim, filed in the NSW supreme court in October, Thomas’s lawyers wrote: “Senior Constable [Christopher] Davis punched the plaintiff’s right eye with his right hand … causing the plaintiff to scream, as well as causing immediate bleeding and swelling in and from the plaintiff’s right eye.“At the time of the punch, Senior Constable Davis was holding a torch in his right hand.”The state has admitted this conduct of Davis “as pleaded” and that the use of force “constituted a battery”. It also admitted in its statement of defence, filed with the court in April, to harm and general damages as a result of the punch.Thomas’s lawyers from O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors wrote that it ruptured her eyeball and fractured her eye socket.“The state has offered to pay the plaintiff’s reasonable expenses connected with the injuries admitted by this pleading,” NSW said in its defence.Thomas’s lawyers claimed she was also entitled to aggravated and exemplary damages, alleging Davis’s conduct was “manifestly excessive” and constituted a “grave departure” from police powers. However, the state denied those claims.Davis is scheduled to face a criminal hearing in February after he pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.The defence notes that the protest outside SEC Plating was planned by the group Weapons Out the West and was “apparently concerned with manufacturing companies, such as SEC Plating, providing components for weapons thought to be used by Israel in the conflict taking place in Gaza”. SEC Plating has previously denied this.The state admitted to another battery after Thomas claimed Sen Const Pir Ali Noohpoto grabbed her before the punch which led her to shout in pain. The state admitted that Noohpoto “took hold of the plaintiff’s upper body”.NSW admitted that use of force “constituted a battery”, in its statement of defence.The state admitted the same officer took hold of Thomas’s arms in an effort to remove her from a group of other protesters, who the state has claimed were pulling her back into their fold.The defence argued other officers used “reasonable force to suppress a breach of the peace” and it was “lawful and carried out in self-defence”.Thomas alleged in her statement of claim slight variations to the state’s admissions.The state agreed that after she was punched and lay on the ground, officers discussed that she had been punched.It admitted Thomas was then not allowed to leave after she was directed to remain seated or standing for a period of time near the incident, and that her “eye remained closed and appeared to be injured”.Thomas claimed – alongside battery and false imprisonment – that the state engaged in malicious prosecution and malfeasance in public office.The state has denied those latter allegations. Thomas claimed an officer “falsified the narrative of events” and charged Thomas for an “improper purpose”.Thomas was initially charged with resisting police and refusing or failing to comply with a direction to disperse.It was later revealed that Thomas’s arrest documents showed her second charge relied on a rarely used emergency power introduced in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots.NSW police withdrew that charge in July and announced Thomas would instead face an additional charge of refusing or failing to comply with a direction alongside resisting police. The DPP withdrew all charges in September.Thomas was subsequently awarded $22,000 in legal costs.The assistant police commissioner Brett McFadden said after the June 2025 protest that “preliminary examination of some of the body-worn video” did not show “any misconduct by any police officers”.“There is no doubt that the injuries sustained during the course of her arrest, that’s not in dispute, and we’re now looking to understand the full circumstances as to how that took place,” he said on 30 June 2025.NSW police said on Wednesday in a statement: “As the matter is currently litigated in the courts, it is inappropriate to respond at this time.”The next hearing of the civil claim was scheduled for early September.