Overview

• Justice Dina Yehia found police overlooked statutory requirements and failed to ensure reasonable privacy during the 2018 search of Raya Meredith.
• Meredith was awarded $93,000 in damages plus interest, including $43,000 in compensatory damages and $50,000 in aggravated damages.
• The judge ruled Meredith is entitled to exemplary damages, with the amount yet to be determined.
• NSW conceded in April that Meredith’s search was unlawful, but liability for more than 3,000 other class members remains unresolved.
• The court criticized reliance on a drug-detection dog indication as a justification for the search and noted a 90% drop in Splendour strip searches in 2019 alongside subsequent improvements.