64yr-old grandma sues Oz state for strip search in public

Melbourne, December 26 (ANI): A sexagenarian woman is suing the Australian State of New South Wales for being strip searched and arrested on a busy Sydney street in a police case of mistaken identity more than a year ago.

Leentje McDonald, 64, has filed a statement of claim in the District Court citing false imprisonment and wrongful arrest as the reason for suing the state.

She was somehow mistaken by the police for an alleged drug dealer, reported to be 24 years her junior, outside a Maroubra pub in full public view.

She alleges that the officers took her belt off and put their hands underneath her clothes in the middle of the footpath in broad daylight.

According to her, when she tried to stop the policemen, they pushed her to the ground and then arrested and charged her with assaulting an officer.

She claims that all that happened after she missed her bus, and ducked into the Maroubra Junction Hotel to play the pokies as she waited for another one.

Leentje said that despite her explaining that they had the wrong woman, a female office arrived shortly afterwards and searched her.

She said that she decided to sue the state after more than a year because she had not received any apology from the police.

"I just want an apology and some recognition that I am suffering to this day," the Daily Telegraph quoted her as saying.

"I am in a lot of pain. I had a frozen shoulder which the police really hurt when they treated me so roughly," she added.

A spokesperson for the NSW Police declined to comments on the matter because it was before the courts.

Leentje's lawyer George Newhouse said that the police had even turned down his client's offer to resolve the matter amicably. (ANI)