Attempted strip search left Canberra jail inmate Julianne Williams 'terrified', court hears

Julianne Francis Williams is suing the ACT government, accusing it of torturous, cruel and degrading treatment while she was locked up in the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

During a civil hearing in March, Ms Williams claimed she felt like she "was being pack-raped" when five correctional officers wearing riot gear tried to forcibly strip search her.

The ACT Supreme Court heard that in January 2021, Ms Williams had been transferred to the crisis support unit in the jail after threatening self-harm.

Shortly before the transfer, a leave request by Ms Williams to attend her grandmother's funeral had been denied. This is also the subject of an alleged human rights breach.

On the day of the incident, an officer became concerned Ms Williams had a concealed razor.

Officers in riot gear entered Ms Williams' cell and attempted to forcibly strip search her, but she eventually consented and was taken to a bathroom with two female officers.

On Tuesday, Ms Williams' barrister, Mark Dennis SC, claimed officers used force unlawfully, and did not treat his client with "humanity and dignity while in custody".

He argued a "series of systemic failures" in the jail had led to the rejection of the funeral request.

Mr Dennis told the court the use of force had been unlawful due to the presence of a Hoffman knife and the failure to ask Ms Williams if she had contraband.

He said officers held the "false belief" strip searches were mandatory upon entry to the crisis unit, which was an "irrelevant, unlawful consideration and renders the search unlawful".

Counsel for the ACT government, Houda Younan SC, argued officers "had considered alternatives to a strip search [and use of force] but had found them wanting".

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Ms Younan conceded that the use of force did not go as planned and "no doubt looked messy".

However, she said, officers had attempted "to approach this in a moderate way but that failed".

"They had to up the ante," Ms Younan said.

"[Ms Williams] attempts to get the court to look at things with the benefit of hindsight.

"The use of force was an attempt to gain compliance, they stopped at the point she agreed."

However, Mr Dennis argued Ms Williams' was "utterly terrified and begging for mercy" at the time which was "not free and voluntary consent".

A barrister for the ACT Human Rights Commission, Sarala Fitzgerald, told the court "a more graduate, subtle, less arbitrary approach would have been humane".

Ms Fitzgerald said Ms Williams' request to attend her grandmother's funeral was a priority from a human rights perspective.

"For Aboriginal people, participation in sorry business has particular importance," she said.

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