Strip Search Of Teenage Festival-Goer Leads To NSW Police Internal Review

Lucy Moore

NSW Police have said that they are conducting a review into an incident at the recent Hidden Music Fetival, in which teenager Lucy Moore was strip searched in view of other punters and ejected from the event, despite having no drugs or alcohol in her possession.

Last week, 19-year-old Moore described her experience in a lengthy Facebook post. She said that she and her boyfriend were approaching the entrance gates to the festival after collecting their lanyards when police stopped her, telling her she had been detected by a sniffer dog.

Moore said that she was confused by this as she had no drugs in her possession and did not see a sniffer dog react to her, but she went with police as instructed. She said:

I was taken away by another police officer and was told nothing of what was about to happen, I was never asked for my consent to be searched let alone my consent to be strip searched. Strip searches need to be conducted after being pat down and the officers need to have reasonable suspicion that you have drugs on your person to be able to perform a strip search and they also have to do these searches in private and out of view of officers of the other sex as well as out of view of people who don’t need to see the search (such as other attendees).

This wasn’t the case at hidden over the weekend. Not only did I see other people being searched, during my search the door was left half open and only “blocked” by the small female cop. I could easily see outside which means that attendees and the male cops outside could have easily seen in as well. Not only this, a girl in the cubicle next to me was also searched with her door still open with a couple cops entering and leaving at will. Also as I have learned, cops CANNOT ask you to squat and cough, this is illegal but police at the hidden festival still were asking for us to do this.

She said that she left the search “humiliated and embarrassed”, but was then approached by another officer and told to return for further questioning. Despite telling police that she had only consumed one vodka and coke at her hotel prior to the event, she says she was questioned for over an hour.

She says she was eventually allowed to leave, and was handed a six-month ban from the Sydney Olympic Park venue, as police were “under the assumption” that she was intoxicated.

Lucy Moore says she has contacted NSW Police with a complaint, and is in “discussions” with lawyers about the incident. A police representative has since told media:

“After receiving a complaint, this matter will now be subject to an internal review,and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment further.”

In February of this year, the NSW state government announced a controversial new ‘high risk’ classification for music festivals, with events that meet the high-risk designation to be subject to stricter licensing conditions.

Organisers reacted angrily to the lack of transparency throughout the process as well as the lack of any clear guidance as to what the new rules actually involve, slamming the Berejiklian government for its ongoing “war on festivals.”

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