Ms Horvath would later end up with serious facial injuries and has accused one of the officers, now Myrtleford Senior Constable David Jenkin, of bashing her on the night of March 9, 1996.

Jenkin’s then police partner Stephen Davidson told Melbourne County Court on Thursday that Ms Horvath had been the aggressive one when they accused her of speeding in an unroadworthy car.

He said when police arrived at her Hastings home, she was standing next to the driver’s side of the car, there was dust in the air from the gravel driveway, her breath smelled of alcohol and she appeared substance-affected.

Ms Horvath previously gave evidence that she and Jenkin got into a scuffle and had to be pulled apart by her partner and now Sergeant Davidson, which both police have denied.

“I was fearful for both of us,” Sergeant Davidson said.

He agreed with a question from Jenkin’s defence barrister Marcus Dempsey that it was the police sergeants who made the call to return to the house, with eight officers in total.

“It was absolute pandemonium from the moment you walked into the house, wasn’t it?” Mr Dempsey said.

Previous witnesses have said police dragged an unconscious Ms Horvath out of the house “like a ragdoll” after the alleged assault.

But Sergeant Davidson said the arrest was complete by the time he entered the lounge room and he saw Jenkin and Ms Horvath both conscious and on their feet.

Sergeant Mark Bell was a trainee constable back in 1996 and tasked to watch Ms Horvath in the Hastings police cells after her arrest.

He told the court she kicked the cell wall at waist-height about 40 times as she was “going crazy”.

“I was quite intimidated,” he said.

“I still have a clear recollection of her being the angriest person I’ve ever seen.”

Prosecutor John Saunders questioned retired sergeant Frank Smith about inconsistencies in his evidence since 1996.

Mr Smith told the jury he saw people including Ms Horvath at the front of the Hastings home when police arrived, despite telling an internal investigation 20 years ago that he did not see anyone at that time.

“I may have been mistaken … I did see them,” he said.

Sergeant Ian Christensen was in charge on the night and said it was the right decision to allow Jenkin to be at the front door when police entered, despite his earlier issue with Ms Horvath.

“I needed him there to point out the offenders,” he said.

“I thought we would have been going back there and getting a peaceful entry.

“It didn’t turn out that way.”

Sergeant Christensen also said Ms Horvath was conscious when arrested, but “had what looked like pretty bad injuries”.

“I made the decision to get out of the place,” he said.

“I didn’t know how many people were in there and if they had weapons.”

The trial continues on Monday.

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