Overview

• NSW Supreme Court Justice Dina Yehia ruled Raya Meredith’s 2018 Splendour in the Grass strip search unlawful and ordered $93,000 in compensation and aggravated damages.
• The court found officers lacked reasonable grounds, wrongly treated a drug dog indication as sufficient, and failed to meet LEPRA’s seriousness and urgency requirements.
• Meredith was searched in a makeshift cubicle, told to remove a tampon, a male officer entered while she was undressed, and no drugs were found.
• Justice Yehia criticized inadequate training, supervision and record-keeping, noted the absence of any apology from the state, and said the state made assertions “wholly without basis.”
• Exemplary damages were deemed appropriate in principle but will be set after other claims, with roughly 3,000 class members registered and potential state liability reported at up to $150 million.