Policeman hit teen with baton months after assaulting disability pensioner

One of the three police officers who assaulted a disability pensioner outside his home also struck a teenage boy with his baton in another on-duty assault less than four months later, it can now reported.

Florian Hilgart outside court in 2019.Credit:Eddie Jim

Florian Hilgart and two colleagues were found guilty last year of unlawful assault over an excessive and unnecessary use of force on the disability pensioner, John, on his front lawn on September 19, 2017.

John, 36 at the time, was pinned down by six officers who attended his Preston home for a welfare check and was punched and hit with a baton, and sprayed with capsicum spray and a high-powered hose.

Hilgart on Tuesday admitted striking a 15-year-old boy with a baton on January 1, 2018, after a high-speed pursuit. The teenager was a passenger in a car driven by his uncle and did not resist arrest or try to run away when he got out, Melbourne Magistrates Court heard.

The chase ended when the boy’s uncle’s car stalled in Thornbury. Hilgart, an acting sergeant that day, smashed one of the car’s windows with his baton and directed the boy to get on the ground. While the boy was on his stomach, Hilgart struck him to the arm and leg, which caused bruising and soreness, prosecutor Nadia Deltondo said.

Hilgart was found guilty by a magistrate of unlawfully assaulting John and in May had his guilty verdict and penalties upheld by a County Court judge. Having resigned from Victoria Police afterwards, he now faces a possible conviction for assaulting the boy.

Florian Hilgart was one of three police officers found guilty of unlawfully assaulting a disability pensioner outside his Preston home in 2017.

But defence lawyer Jason Gullaci said it was wrong to suggest his client, 43, considered himself above the law.

“Your honour could not conclude Mr Hilgart is a thug, that Mr Hilgart is an officer who gets his kicks out of assaulting suspects,” Mr Gullaci told magistrate Pauline Spencer.

Bruising on the teenager’s arm.

Instead, the lawyer said, Hilgart made errors in judgment in difficult circumstances in two incidents. The boy’s uncle drove in a dangerous and “reprehensible” manner, Mr Gullaci said, and the pursuit came less than a year after six people were deliberately hit and killed by a driver in Bourke Street.

The uncle was charged over the pursuit but the result of his case is not known. One of the other passengers ran from the scene, the court heard.

Mr Gullaci called for Hilgart to be put on a good-behaviour bond and fined, without conviction. He said his client had been “demonised” in the media for his roles in both assaults, was now unemployed with mental health problems, and accepted his responsibility over the second incident.

“Yes, perhaps decisions could have been made better, but that’s very easy to say sitting back in a comfortable chair with the benefit of hindsight and watching video footage,” the lawyer said.

Prosecutors agree a fine and good-behaviour bond are appropriate penalties but they want Hilgart convicted.

Ms Deltondo accepted police regularly faced challenging situations and that the pursuit and its aftermath were dangerous for Hilgart and his colleague. But Hilgart’s rank at the time meant he should have been setting an example, and that the public expected police to act lawfully and with good judgment in stressful circumstances.

Hilgart was to face trial in the County Court for assaulting the boy until he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a weapon and the case was sent back to the Magistrates Court.

He was last year found guilty of unlawful assault for spraying a hose in pensioner John’s face a third time, having earlier used it to wash capsicum spray from the man’s face. John was handcuffed and on the ground at the time.

Hilgart and another officer, Brad McLeod, appealed against the findings but a County Court judge this year upheld the magistrate’s verdicts and penalties. Hilgart was put on a good-behaviour bond without conviction and ordered to pay $1000 to the court fund.

McLeod was found guilty of punching John, deploying capsicum spray in his face while the pensioner was pinned down and directing Hilgart to use the hose. McLeod was also put on a good-behaviour bond without conviction but was ordered to pay $3500 to the court fund. He has also since quit the force.

The third officer found guilty of unlawfully assaulting the pensioner, John Edney, did not appeal against the magistrate’s guilty finding and has since had his job reinstated. He struck John’s leg with a baton and stood on his head.

The three other officers who were at John’s home were not charged.

Hilgart, who watched Tuesday’s hearing on a video link from his home, will be sentenced on Friday.

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Adam Cooper joined The Age in 2011 after a decade with AAP. Email or tweet Adam with your news tips.

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