On a sunny day in December 2019, Blue Mountains resident Rosie Cooney locked herself in the bathroom of her boyfriend’s parents’ house and rang the domestic violence hotline 1800 RESPECT.
She told the operator her boyfriend was still in the house but in a different room, and that he had been physically violent.
Yet later that same day, Rosie Cooney would be arrested, detained and charged with assaulting her boyfriend.
7.30 has obtained never-before-seen police body-cam footage of Rosie’s case, which reveals the shocking circumstances that led to her arrest.
Former New South Wales magistrate David Heilpern, who analysed the footage for 7.30, has called for an independent inquiry into the police response in Rosie’s case.
“It’s a deprivation of liberty that in my view is unlawful,” he said.
“This is a case that certainly warrants investigation by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.”
In her call to 1800 RESPECT, Rosie told the hotline operator: “My boyfriend just beat me up, what do I do?”
The soft-spoken lady on the other end of the line urged Rosie to hang up and call the police.
“They’ll make sure you’re safe,” she said.
Rosie complied and two police officers arrived soon after.
Her then-boyfriend Christian Sawczak maintains he never assaulted Rosie.
In her call to 1800 RESPECT, Rosie told the hotline operator: “My boyfriend just beat me up, what do I do?”
The soft-spoken lady on the other end of the line urged Rosie to hang up and call the police.
“They’ll make sure you’re safe,” she said.
Rosie complied and two police officers arrived soon after.
Her then-boyfriend Christian Sawczak maintains he never assaulted Rosie.
“She kept following me and following me. I tried to get in the car to go, and I was pushing her out, and we bumped heads,” Christian told the police.
“And I put the pressure on her arm, pushing her out of the car, and that was out of place obviously. But I did it.”
Despite Rosie having told the police emergency operator that Christian hit her with his fist, headbutted her and threw her belongings outside, the police officer attempted to obtain evidence about Rosie assaulting Christian.
While Christian denied being hurt by Rosie or having any fears about her ongoing behaviour, the officer pressed on, asking him repeatedly whether he had concerns about the potential for Rosie to become violent.
It’s unclear whether the officers knew about the earlier AVOs against Christian.
Within 10 minutes of arriving, the officer concludes Rosie was not assaulted at all.
“I don’t believe there’s any case to answer in terms of an assault allegation,” he told Christian and his parents.
While police spoke to the family, Rosie returned to the house. She decided to listen to what was happening from another room. Almost 30 minutes into the visit, the officer finally noticed her and asked if she wanted to detail her allegations against Christian.
Rosie told 7.30 she felt “ambushed” by the police officer and was not in a position to open up, having overheard much of his interaction with her then-boyfriend.
“How could I speak to them?” she said.
“They’d already made up their mind.”
The officer then asked her to talk to the family and stressed that they did not want her living there anymore.
The officer also warned her that if she returned to the house it may be considered trespassing and cautioned her that if she lied she would get in trouble with the law. Rosie maintained she was telling the truth.
The police left without taking a statement from Rosie, but returned later in the day to again discuss with Christian the possibility of pursuing an AVO and formal criminal charges against Rosie.
The officer explained that Rosie preventing him from leaving in his car could be construed as her assaulting him. Rosie denies assaulting Christian.
Christian finally agreed to make a statement to police and Rosie was later arrested for assault and for trespassing after she returned to the house to collect her bike.
In an attempt to clarify the situation, Rosie told police, “He hit me, I didn’t hit him.”
But that afternoon, Rosie was taken in a police wagon and driven to Katoomba police station, where she said she spent six hours locked up in a police cell.
Her assault charges were later dropped, but she pleaded guilty and was convicted of trespass.
7.30 contacted Christian with a series of written questions that he did not directly respond to.
Christian’s father wrote to 7.30 and said he had separately contacted local police about Rosie’s behaviour and that he found police to be “professional”. But both Christian and his father said they “have never seen Rosie become physically threatening in any way”.
Rosie complained about the police officers’ conduct, but police decided not to investigate her claims. NSW Police said it would not respond to detailed questions for legal reasons.
“I think it’s wrong,” Rosie told 7.30 from her home in the Blue Mountains.
“It makes you question who you are. It makes you question how you deserve to be treated.
“It makes you question things about the law, about police and about society.”
Case ‘certainly warrants investigation’
Former NSW magistrate Mr Heilpern told 7.30 he watched the body-cam footage twice “to make sure it was real”.
“To form a conclusion that there’s no case to answer, before speaking to the victim, obviously defies logic,” he said.
Mr Heilpern had been a magistrate for 21 years and presided over countless domestic violence cases.
He said he found the officer’s conduct deeply troubling, particularly when the officer repeatedly asked questions about Rosie’s behaviour.
“The police officer does keep on asking and really encouraging the man to harden his story … I can’t work out why. It doesn’t seem to me to be logical or sensible,” he said.
“It seems to be a complete turnaround, where the perpetrator becomes the victim, the victim becomes the perpetrator.”
‘It is happening and it needs to be dealt with’
There is limited research to demonstrate how often police misidentify domestic violence victims as the aggressors.
However, researchers in Queensland found that when it does happen, the consequences can be significant.
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) has found that almost half of the women murdered by an intimate partner in Queensland had previously been identified by police as the perpetrator of domestic violence.
Two women on the Gold Coast have recently been murdered in shocking family violence circumstances. In both cases, it has been revealed that the women repeatedly sought help from police. Queensland Police have acknowledged systemic failings in their response to domestic violence incidents.
In Victoria, a 2018 paper by the Women’s Legal Service of Victoria found police had misidentified one in 10 of their female clients in family violence-related AVO cases.
And in NSW, around 25 per cent of women surveyed by the domestic violence advocacy group Women’s Safety NSW reported being misidentified as the primary aggressor, while over 90 per cent of frontline domestic violence services said they saw the victim being misidentified as the primary aggressor sometimes, often or very often.
Hayley Foster, who is the CEO of Women’s Safety NSW, said the survey showed that it was a common experience for domestic violence victims to be misidentified.
“It is happening, and it needs to be dealt with,” she said.
Ms Foster said it is an easy mistake to make for the untrained eye. In the aftermath of a domestic violence incident, after police are called, the victims usually present as highly distressed, Ms Foster explained.
- 1800 Respect National Helpline: 1800 737 732
- Women’s Crisis Line: 1800 811 811
- Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
- Mensline: 1300 789 978
- Lifeline (24-hour Crisis Line): 131 114
- Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277
“The victims themselves may appear very irate, irrational, overwhelmed and not very credible either, and that’s very typical,” she said.
“The offender on the other side can be very clear, calm, coherent and very convincing.”
She said the solution lies in better domestic violence training for officers.
“It’s being able to identify those perpetrator patterns … If you don’t understand those dynamics, you’re going to get it wrong,” she said.
‘Something needs to change’
After over two decades as a NSW magistrate, David Heilpern recalls noticing women in his courtroom who were defending domestic violence-related charges.
Just like Rosie Cooney, some of those women had called the police for help, prior to being charged and identified as the aggressors.
“There is a whole subset of women who are victims of domestic violence who are not able, or don’t want to, or don’t see the police as being a protective agency. And that means that perpetrators get away with a lot more domestic violence,” Mr Heilpern said.
The implications of what happened in Rosie’s case are significant, he said after watching the full hour of the body-cam footage from her case.
“I think that most people watching the entirety of that would just be aghast at the end result,” he said.
“I think that [Rosie Cooney’s case] is worthy of an inquiry because it exemplifies the problem – that women who have been mistreated by police, [who] have been locked up when they make a complaint of domestic violence, are extremely reluctant to call the police.
“Again, if they find themselves in that situation, why would they [call police]?”
After nearly two years reflecting on what was one of the most traumatic experiences of her life, Rosie says she has since lost faith in the police and the criminal justice system.
“What I saw that day, the way I was treated, just demonstrated that you don’t call the police when you’re assaulted … It’s not safe to trust the police,” she said.
“The most important thing is that something needs to be done about police responses to domestic violence.
“They need to realise how a misjudgement can have detrimental effects on someone who’s actually suffered.
“Something just needs to change.”