Grindr Date Turns Into Alleged Police Assault For Sydney Gay Man

A Sydney-based gay man, who claims a NSW police officer kicked him in the head, damaging his hearing, during a home raid where he was a bystander, is seeking compensation from the state government.

NSW Police said the incident never happened.

The alleged victim Tristan Hockings told Star Observer that the incident left him with PTSD, shattered his faith in the state’s police force and forced him to resign from his nursing job at a major Sydney hospital. While he has always had hearing problems and has long worn a hearing aid, he now needs a cochlear implant and an operation to have it inserted.

Grindr Date Turns Into Police Raid

On January 16, 2019, Tristan Hockings, then 36 years old, went on a Grindr date and slept in a Redfern home. On the morning of January 17, “the sound of an angry mob” woke him as a NSW Police tactical response team swept the premises as part of a drug raid targeting his date.

“It was absolutely terrifying,” he recounted. “I had my phone in my hand – I was about to call 000.”

“The guy I was with at the time ran downstairs. I was upstairs in a stranger’s house all by myself.”

Once Hockings realised the mob of men surrounding him were police, he calmed down, he told Star Observer. He was on the ground, restrained, and “everything seemed to settle down”.

Then, one police officer approached him “making stupid animal growling sounds, just being an absolute clown.”

“He was looking side to side deliberately to attract attention,” Hockings alleges, “and then he kicked me in the head. I was seeing stars.”

Hockings, who has no criminal record, expressed confusion over the motivation for the alleged assault, theorising that it may have been “a homophobic attack”.

“Going up the stairs to the bedroom there was this Banksy artwork of two male English cops kissing.”

The matter will be heard in the District Court of NSW in November this year.

No Help With Police Complaint

Hockings said that he has received little help during complaints processes, eroding his faith in police accountability. Days after the search warrant operation in which he became entangled, Hockings filed an official complaint with NSW Police.

“It took them 3 months for them to come to my home and interview me about the assault. They didn’t really take it very seriously,” he said. Hockings next reached out to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) to make a complaint.

“LECC lost my complaint for a year after the person in charge of my case left,” Hockings recounted. “They then did a rush investigation which, surprise surprise, was referred back to the police which found no wrongdoing even though they referenced a takedown technique when I was never ‘taken down’ as I [allegedly] got down on the ground myself.”

‘I Used To Idealise The Police’

“I used to idealise the police. I wanted to be a cop myself,” he said. But he says he doesn’t trust the police anymore. “It wasn’t just this lone officer, this bad egg,” he said, but the whole process which left him shaken.

“I’ve been stonewalled at every step of the way. How is the community meant to trust the police when stuff like this happens?”

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has refused to meet with him until after the court case.

“If I win the case, I’m hoping I can get criminal charges laid,” Hockings said.

A NSW Police spokesperson said they could not comment as the matter is before the court.

An internal police investigation found that no officers involved in the home raid operation had stepped out of line. “Nil sustained findings against any subject officer,” read the letter from the police, dated September 4, 2019. His case was dismissed.