When police charged an NRL star, one detective broke ranks

Kurt Hayward spent 23 years in NSW Police before retiring four years ago, disillusioned with the force. (Four Corners: Rob Hill) Link copiedShareShare articleAs rugby league player Tom Starling, torn shirt, bloodied face and concussed, paced his police cell, a veteran detective's phone started to ring. It was a Sunday morning in December 2020 and Detective Sergeant Kurt Hayward was at home. "I received a few calls that an NRL player had been arrested by the local police," Hayward told Four Corners. "I knew that it was going to cause a storm." Hayward, who spent 23 years in the NSW police, is speaking publicly about the Starling incident for the first time because he believes he witnessed a failure of the system to hold officers to account. Starling was arrested during a 21st party at the Shady Palms bar on the NSW Central Coast, when police responded to a confrontation between bar security and Starling and his family. Officers from the local police station and the riot squad alleged Starling and others had violently attacked them and that, during the melee, Starling had even tried to grab a detective's gun from his holster. Starling was released on Sunday morning from the Gosford police station. A journalist and camera operator were waiting to capture the latest NRL player accused of behaving badly. As Starling ran the media gauntlet, he clutched a police document stating he had been charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest. The next day, Detective Sergeant Hayward walked into the police station and saw another officer viewing the CCTV footage of the incident. He watched it. Starling is dragged out of the bar backwards by officers. A tall well-built riot squad officer, Sergeant Evan Prowse, punches him at least twice, knocking out the Canberra Raiders hooker. Still held aloft by police, Starling is then hit several more times while either unconscious or barely conscious by a local officer, Senior Constable Steven Brown. "The first thing I said was, 'it looks like [a police officer's] going to hit the dock,'" Hayward said, in reference to the police cells where people are held after being charged with a criminal offence. "You could see Starling had already been knocked unconscious and was floppy and Brown throws those punches at the unconscious body," he said. "There's no way you can justify those actions." Prowse and Brown deny that they assaulted Starling. Hayward then read the police report on the incident. To him, it didn't at all match with the vision he had just seen. "[It was] a classic case of overcharging and [police] trying to justify their actions by overcharging and saying things that just didn't happen." He hoped that once his superiors saw the CCTV footage, they would launch an internal investigation. He presumed that then one or both of the officers who punched Starling would be stood down and possibly charged. Starling was charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest. (Four Corners) Four Corners is telling this story as part of the Brutal Force series, which reveals a worrying rise in complaints and civil suits targeting the NSW Police Force in recent years. Last financial year, the NSW Police Force was behind a record $40 million paid out in settlements and legal costs to people who sue over alleged police misconduct. That is up 43 per cent in only five years, according to the police's own data. A woman was pepper sprayed, kicked and dragged on a Sydney road by police. Her family fought to have footage of the attack released. The same year, NSW police were the defendants in 478 civil suits, which equals about two cases every working day of the year. Lawyers, victims and criminologists say this is indicative of a flawed police misconduct system that often fails to get results, pushing victims and their lawyers to the civil courts to get some measure of justice. "High levels of litigation are a result of bad behaviour by police," says one of Australia's pre-eminent criminologists and police integrity experts, the University of the Sunshine Coast's Tim Prenzler. "To be successful in the civil courts in suing the police, you have to have a very strong case," Professor Prenzler says. "So where we see success in litigation, there's probably substantial evidence of misconduct." Tom Starling spent the first few days after the incident hiding at home, watching headline after headline describe him as just another footy thug, terrified his career was over before it began. "It was like living in a dream or something, like you're just waiting to wake up," he said. Starling was terrified his career was over. (Four Corners: Ryan Sheridan) "I'd just started playing in the NRL, the only thing I ever wanted to do, and one moment you're there at your mate's 21st and then you're being told you're being charged with assaulting police." Raised in a working-class family on the Central Coast, footy was Starling's life. "I used to look at NRL players when I was a

When police charged an NRL star, one detective broke ranks

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When police charged an NRL star, one detective broke ranks

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