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Adelaide granny plans to sue Govt. over 1970s police strip ordeal

By Super Admin
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Google Oneindia News

Adelaide, August 17 (ANI): An old woman in Adelaide is considering taking legal action against the State Government for the pain and suffering she went through when she was stripped by five male police officers and put in a cell in the early 1970s.

The mother-of-five, named as 'Mary' in news stories, was a teenager at the time.

She decided on dragging the Government to court after she read about other women being stripped and put naked into padded cells by male police officers at stations, including Christies Beach and the City Watch House.

She said that reading the news stories deepened the pain she has felt since she was stripped by five officers, after she was arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Hindley St in 1972.

"I came out of a club and had had too much to drink and was being loud when the police came up to me and told me to shut up and put me in the back of a panel van and said I was going to be locked up," the Adelaide Now quoted her as saying.

"I swore at them and lashed out at one which I shouldn't have done but then they took me to the old Angas St station where I was held down and stripped by five male officers, I had one holding each arm and each leg and the other one was taking my clothes off before they left me with a blanket," she added.

Mary broke down while recalling how the incident had "haunted" her every day since, led to problems in relationships, and destroyed her self-confidence and body image.

"I thought it was just me, I had no idea it happened to other women too. I have tried to block it out of my life for the last 30-odd years but there hasn't been a day where it hasn't come into my head," she said.

"This has haunted me for the last 36 years, it really does feel like I was raped and it doesn't go away no matter - I have had prayer in my heart for the hurt to go away and this has brought it all back again," she added.

She even revealed that her husband and other close family members still did not know about the incident.

"I never told my mother about it, the only person I told for years was a good friend and last year I told my daughter who just broke down in tears," she said.

"It is just not fair that they treated me like that over such a minor incident and I am so upset that it still goes on ... I cannot describe how I still feel about it, it's dreadful and it has scarred my life.

"I am going to get in contact with a lawyer to see if there is anything I can do about it, it's like a knife being driven into me again hearing about all this and it shouldn't be still happening," she added. (ANI)

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