The son of an elderly man allegedly assaulted by NSW police officers during an arrest in Sydney’s south-west has spoken for the first time, calling for more support for elderly dementia patients.
Bruce Hodge, whose 92-year-old father Ronald Hodge was hospitalised with a broken arm after a confrontation with police, told ABC News the incident has taken a toll on both of his parents.
Bruce said his father has now mostly recovered from his physical injuries, which left him “disabled for about a month after”, but said “the mental effect” has been more significant.
His mother has now been moved to a dementia ward in a nursing home, leaving his father at home alone.
“That’s the biggest thing now is the separation and the confusion,” he said.
“There’s a degree of confusion from him as to what happened and who is to blame, given his age.
“It’s very unfortunate because it has affected the relationship he now has with my mother.”
Ronald and Patricia Hodge have been married for 70 years and have three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Bruce said Mrs Hodge, 90, began to develop dementia about two years ago and her condition had worsened over the past year, but the pair remained living at home and “cared for each other”.
Police ‘responded very well’ during first call
Bruce Hodge, who is a leading surgeon at Port Macquarie Hospital, said his mother suffers from paranoia and had called police once before, about a year ago.
“At that time the difference was that police did come… and there was a degree of aggression from my mother towards police, but they responded very well,” he said.
“She did have a pair of scissors in her hand but they calmly took them off her…they communicated with us… they arranged an ambulance to have her transferred to a hospital.”
Mrs Hodge was eventually allowed to return home to live with her husband and was prescribed medication to help with her dementia symptoms.
Earlier this year, on Saturday, January 21, Mrs Hodge once again called triple-0 over a domestic violence incident.
Two officers, a male senior constable and a male constable, responded within minutes, arriving at the Campbell Street home just after 8.45pm.
Bruce said his mother called him shortly after she called police and remained on the phone to him after police arrived.
For legal reasons, we cannot publish the details of what he heard during that phone call.
‘An elderly man sitting in a chair is not a threat to anybody’
He said he tried desperately to get a message to the officers that his mother suffered from dementia, but was unable to reach them via triple-0 and didn’t know which police station they had come from.
While he was trying to reach them, the officers decided to arrest his father.
Ronald Hodge was injured during that arrest and was taken directly to Campbelltown Hospital.
He was treated for a fracture to his right elbow, and significant bruising to his head and arms.
Ronald was never charged with a crime.
Bruce said what happened to his father was “unfortunate”, but he believes the incident was isolated and that police “are doing a very difficult job”.
“In these circumstances, an elderly man sitting in a chair is not a threat to anybody,” he said.
“In these circumstances we are relying on how people react individually to see if they’re going to apply what they’ve been taught and I think it’s sad that this wasn’t done.
“You have to think is this action I’m going to take reasonable? I don’t think it was appropriate in this case….but that will be born out in the court case.”
Following an internal investigation which lasted several months, the two officers, both attached to the South West Metropolitan Region, were charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The constable is also facing a further charge of assault.
Call for aged care and mental health reform
Bruce said he wants his father’s case to be a catalyst for reforms to the aged care and mental health system, which he believes is “overloaded”.
“The biggest issue (my parents) had was accessing the system,” he said.
“We need to be able to have better access for people to be able to be assessed and a system that is streamlined and provides adequate feedback to those who need to get the care, that’s where we’re lacking at the moment.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time in government, but that’s all we’ve been doing is talking about it… We haven’t actually seen substantial movement.”
Bruce said elderly people like his parents were often hesitant to seek help and faced long wait times when they did.
“That makes it even more difficult, that’s the area we need to change is how we get people into it,” he said.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb held a press conference following the officers’ charges last week, where she said the internal investigation into Ronald Hodge’s arrest began the day after police attended the home.
“It’s obviously a complex matter when you have someone elderly, someone who has mental decline through dementia, or through something else, that can actually articulate any concerns to police properly,” she said.
The incident came less than a year after great-grandmother Clare Nowland, 95, died in hospital one week after she was allegedly tasered by a NSW Police officer in her Cooma nursing home.
Mrs Nowland was holding a knife during the confrontation with police before falling and fracturing her skull in May last year.
Senior Constable Kristian White is facing a raft of charges over her death, including manslaughter and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.
Commissioner says residents can trust NSW Police
Commissioner Webb said last week following Ronald Hodge’s injuries that she had “confidence that officers are responding to those [domestic violence] calls the majority of times”.
“If there are occasions that we have concerns about the way we respond, then we will investigate, like we’ve done in this matter,” she said.
She added that it was important for her to assure residents that they can trust the state’s police force.
“We respond to thousands and thousands of calls, every week and every year, in NSW. And most of the time, we get it right — almost all of the time, we respond to victims in a very caring, empathetic manner.
“But if we have concerns, as an executive, as a leadership, that officers haven’t responded appropriately, then we will investigate.”
One of the officers will appear at Campbelltown Local Court on July 30.
The other is due to appear at Campbelltown Local Court on August 6.
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