Myrtleford police officer David Jenkin will not take the stand in court to defend himself against accusations he bashed a woman in her home.
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The prosecution case again Jenkin, 49, closed on Monday in the third week of the trial at Melbourne County Court.
They allege that as a constable stationed at Hastings in March 1996, he forced his way into the home of Corinna Horvath and assaulted her with multiple punches to the face during an arrest.
Judge David Sexton told the jury, after the prosecution witnesses had finished, that there would be no further evidence presented at the trial.
The alleged victim’s father Paul Horvath earlier told the court about the phone call he received in the early hours of March 10 from a doctor at the police station saying Ms Horvath was in “urgent need of medical attention”.
“He said she had been bashed,” he said.
Ms Horvath, who suffered a broken nose and serious bruising to her face from the incident, was eventually able to speak to her father on the phone from the police cells.
“She told me to hurry up and pick her up because she was frightened and sore,” Mr Horvath said.
“I managed to calm her down a bit because she was frightened she would get assaulted again.”
When he arrived at the police station, he was told she had already been taken to Frankston hospital.
Police have given evidence that a group of eight officers went to Ms Horvath’s Hastings home on the night of March 9, 1996 to arrest her and her partner for assaulting Jenkin and his police partner an hour earlier.
Mark Saunders, a former police officer on duty that night, said Jenkin was the one to kick in the door without instruction from his superior officers.
“I was surprised because I just heard Sergeant Christensen say ‘we don’t need a warrant, we can come in’,” he said.
Mr Saunders said he did not see Jenkin punch Ms Horvath, but came to help when he heard yelling from the lounge room and saw the woman on her back.
“I could see they were flailing their arms at each other,” he said.
“I got a sense Jenkin was sitting up to avoid being scratched.”
It was not until he grabbed her arms and helped turn her over so she could be handcuffed, that he noticed a pool of blood on the floor.
Jenkin’s barrister Marcus Dempsey has previously put to witnesses that the police officer punched Ms Horvath three times as a reasonable act to subdue her.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
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