Paul McGirr represented brothers Darcy and Riley Allan in a lengthy local court hearing which finalised at Lithgow on 14 January 2019 after 4 days. The brothers had been facing assault charges, as well as charges of resisting arrest and hindering police.

By the time the court case ended, all the charges had been dismissed and the police actions criticised by the state’s Deputy Chief Magistrate Michael Allen, who ordered that taxpayers pay the brothers’ legal costs of $22,000.

Magistrate Allen found the arrest was illegal and video of the brothers being arrested at their Bowenfels home was tendered at Lithgow Court. Mobile phone footage shows Riley Allan yelling: “Get out!” and “This is my house, what are you doing?” while the police officer arresting him, Hayley Partington, shouts: “Get on the f...ing ground and f...ing stay there, c..t”.

Magistrate Allen found that the police illegally entered the brothers’ property and told the court: “I thought these days were long gone in the police”. His Honour further noted that in the circumstances there were a number of alternatives than physically entering their home to arrest them some 90 minutes after the original incident at the Grand Central Hotel in Lithgow. Paul McGirr noted that the police had all been “singing from the same hymn sheet” and the video evidence indicated that the police were the aggressors.