Transcript

"Punch Drunk" Monday 25 February 2013

(Shots of uniformed police wrestling with drunk men outside pubs)

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: In our streets, in our hospital emergency wards...

(Police trying restrain a man in a hospital)

...a lethal cocktail of alcohol and violence.

(Long shot of a young man in a wheelchair on a beach)

MARGARET FORD, MOTHER: What's your life like now, Sam?

(Sam makes a thumbs down gesture)

Not very good?

SAM FORD, BASHING VICTIM: Nah...

KERRY O'BRIEN: A national pastime that's got well out of hand. Welcome to Four Corners.

Alcohol is not only often seen as a rite of passage in Australia, it's also embedded in our culture. It's when the drinking gets out of hand and the drinker loses all sense of judgement that bad things can happen.

Tonight's program will contend - through the eyes of police, paramedics, doctors and nurses - that in Australia, public drinking and the aggression it often generates have reached crisis proportions.

About 70 per cent of police street work is consumed with alcohol related incidents, and hospital emergency departments are often overloaded at weekends.

There are about 70,000 alcohol-fuelled assaults across Australia each year. While alcohol related assaults are not on the increase in all states, it seems drinkers are now inclined to drink more spirits and trauma doctors say the severity of assaults has dramatically increased.

Tonight we show the terrible ripple effect, not only on the victims and their families but also on the perpetrators.

Janine Cohen is the reporter.

(Long shot of Coolangatta skyline at night)

JANINE COHEN, REPORTER: It was a typical busy Saturday night in Coolangatta on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Eighteen year old Sam Ford was walking to a nightclub with his girlfriend.

(Superimposed photograph of Sam Ford with his girlfriend)

RYLAND FORD, SAM'S BROTHER: Sam was actually walking to the nightclub to meet me. It was his first time going out clubbing since he turned 18.

(Shot of a street at night with muffled jeers and shouting)

CRAIG BLANCH, QLD POLICE DETECTIVE: Sam and his girlfriend heard a male voice from behind and he was yelling abuse towards him, trying to entice Sam to fight him.

MICHAEL FORD, SAM'S FATHER: Sam was trying to avoid a fight at any cost. He was trying to protect his girlfriend.

DETECTIVE CRAIG BLANCH: Sam was backing away from the incident, trying to text on his phone to his brother to tell him what was going on.

JANINE COHEN: Sam's girlfriend tried to shield Sam and was knocked to the ground.

(Shadows of people fighting)

MICHAEL FORD: This man swung violently at Sam.

(Thud of a punch)

MARGARET FORD: The punch was so forceful, when Sam's head hit the ground witnesses said it sounded like a log cracking open.

(Mobile phone video footage of the street after the incident)

JANINE COHEN: A crowd quickly gathered. These scenes were captured on a mobile phone.

Several people rang triple zero.

(Excerpts from Triple 0 calls)

MAN: Can I please get someone as soon as possible at Greenmount Beach? There's a guy that got knocked out on the road and he's- I think he's having a fit, he's snorting...

WOMAN: Oh my god.

OPERATOR: What I need you to do is actually wave the ambulance down when they get there. I'm going to let them know where you are.

WOMAN: I will, I will. But there's actually now about I'm saying probably 15 to 17 teenagers. It's not looking good.

(Confused footage of kids milling about the accident scene)

MICHAEL FORD: Sam's brother Ryland came, got there after he received the text and found Sam on the ground.

RYLAND FORD: I got on the phone. I was actually yelling a bit - someone call an ambulance. I made a call myself.

MICHAEL FORD: There's Sam's girlfriend screaming, people yelling, running everywhere and all he could do was hold Sam in his lap while they waited for an ambulance to come.

RYLAND FORD: I just remember leaning over him and just holding the sides of his head gently and just continuously talking to him - 'Sammy, can you hear me?' Trying to get any response. 'I am here', you know, 'Blink your eyes - just let me know you can hear me'.

There was nothing.

JANINE COHEN: Still clearly intoxicated, the attacker returned to the scene of the crime and was confronted by Sam's friends.

(Confused footage of the scene and people running)

WOMAN (speaking to Triple 0): Stop, stop. There was a bloke who just committed the crime is coming back to the scene now. It's not pretty.

Okay, can we actually have some police here as well?

OPERATOR: Yep. We'll need to get the ambulance there first...

WOMAN: Oh my god.

OPERATOR: If you can move away from the noise so I can actually talk to you and hear you.

RYLAND FORD: The attacker had drunk 10 cans of bourbon and coke that night, obviously was heavily intoxicated when the attack happened.

(Sirens wail)

JANINE COHEN: Sam was rushed to Tweed Heads Hospital in a critical condition with a fractured skull and massive brain damage.

MICHAEL FORD: I could only look through the doors of the emergency and I could see him. He was obviously unconscious, he looked a mess.

He looked... (sighs) He looked dead.

(Still of Sam Ford intubated in a hospital bed)

MARGARET FORD: It was horrific. I had no idea that it was going to be as bad as what it was. He was covered in blood and vomit and his ears were bleeding.

(Different shots of Sam in the hospital)

MICHAEL FORD: The doctor said Sam wouldn't make it through the night. They said he needed emergency surgery, that his skull would have to be opened to relieve the swelling.

RYLAND FORD: We were taken into a small room where we just had to just sit and wait - hope, pray.

(Close up of stitches all the way along Sam's hairline)

MICHAEL FORD: We had to sign a release to say that they wouldn't revive him if it got to a certain point because it was virtually pointless, and that's probably the hardest thing I have ever done.

(Bows his head)

JANINE COHEN: It is unlikely that the attack on Sam would have happened without vast quantities of alcohol.

(An ambulance with sirens on speeds through the night streets)

Police, paramedics and trauma doctors across the country are frustrated and tired of alcohol-fuelled violence.

Tonight we are on the front line with Sydney's Rocks Police.

(Paramedics talk over the radio in the ambulance)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL, NSW POLICE: Those people have to know that what they are doing is going to do some sort of damage. I don't care how drunk they are.

(Shots of drunken revellers)

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY, NSW POLICE: Sometimes in the heat of the moment I don't think they are thinking, you know? They've had that much alcohol.

(Constable Burnell speaking to a drunk man on the street)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Where's your ID? Get your wallet out.

MAN: Wow!

JANINE COHEN: Police say about 70 per cent of their street work is taken up with alcohol-related cases...

MAN: That guy over there...

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Get your ID out. We've asked you three times - get your ID out, please.

JANINE COHEN: ...some of it petty, much of it not.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: I am Katie. This is Shane. We are from the Rocks Police. Alright, you approached us before and kept asking for lifts home and we asked you to leave.

MAN: Yes...

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Now you're back. Okay.

MAN: Yes, and I'm trying to help you. The guy over there is trying to argue with me and he's trying to fight we me over there. He is drunk.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Maybe you started it, Samuel.

MAN: I started it?

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Maybe. Please go and get a taxi, please.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: I think it is part of the Australian culture to go out and have a drink. It's just knowing when to stop, when enough is enough. And people at the moment, they don't know it. And they keep going and keep going.

(Drunk man shouting after the police)

MAN: Why do you care about drunkards?

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: And a lot of the times when we turn up to jobs, people are that incoherent they don't even know where they are.

And I think a lot of the onus has to be put on licensed premises as well. They need to be more vigilant, they need to be standing in there and looking at who they are serving.

(Outside a different establishment)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: What's happened?

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: You've been asked to leave a venue.

(inaudible response)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Mate I've seen enough, alright? It's obvious that you're argumentative.

(Man falls over)

MAN: Woah!

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: You're blind! Get up. You're blind drunk. Look at you! Let's go, let's go to the station. Up, up...

(Police help man up and walk him away)

JANINE COHEN: How often do you get called to cases where people simply are drunk and won't leave the premises?

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Just about every one, just about everything that we come across on a Friday and Saturday night is called a 'fail to quit', which means that the person will not leave the licensed premises.

JANINE COHEN: Drunk?

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Drunk. They've been asked to leave because they're either quarrelsome, disorderly, just misbehaving in some regard.

JANINE COHEN: Violent sometimes?

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Yep. Definitely.

MAN: I don't even know what happened...

JANINE COHEN: After 12 warnings, this man has been given an official move on direction but still won't go home.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Reg, I am so over you. I've got to tell ya. I'm done.

REG: Don't say that 'cause I will fucking go over there...

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Are you threatening me? Are you threatening me?

REG: Are you a butch girl or what?

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Are you threatening me?

REG: Are you a butch girl or what?

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: What's 'butch' got to do with it? I have got a job to do.

JANINE COHEN: For 10 minutes Reg refuses to leave the entrance of the Rocks Police Station.

REG: You guys need to pull your head out of your arse. There are other trouble makers around.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Okay...

(Reg walks across the street to another pub)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: He's going to go straight over there.

POLICEMAN: Straight back over!

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Alright, let's go and lock him up. He's got to get locked up.

JANINE COHEN: This is the third time Reg has returned to the hotel.

(Constable Katie Burnell follows Reg to the pub, where he is arguing with a security guard)

SECURITY OFFICER: I asked you to take your drink inside... There you go.

(Police escort Reg away and he falls again)

See you later. Oh here we go again.

JANINE COHEN: Reg is given a $550 fine and put in the police lock up. He has taken up the time of five police officers, some for over an hour.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY (to Reg): It would only take me, trust me...

REG: Are you joking?

NICK KALDAS, NSW POLICE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER: Alcohol imposes a huge cost on emergency services. It's not just the police, it's the ambulance, paramedics, the hospital workers - doctors, nurses and so on.

An enormous amount of effort and anguish is expended on people who have simply got themselves in such a drunken state that emergency services have to become involved to look after them or patch up the mess that they leave.

(Shots of girls dressed up and on the town. The constables walk down the street)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL (getting out of the police car): It's very frustrating...

JANINE COHEN: Thirty minutes after locking Reg up, Constable Lindsay and Constable Burnell see a drunken scuffle outside a bank and pull over.

(The constables approach a couple at an ATM)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Our mate's obviously been annoying these guys, which is fine, and this bloke just pushed him to the ground.

WOMAN: He was harassing us.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Straight to the ground.

WOMAN: He tried to push us as well.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Just get them to move on.

(to the other party) How much have you had to drink.

MAN: Me?

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Fair bit?

MAN: Yeah. Yeah.

(Put's his hand on Constable Lindsay's shoulder)

I-I...

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Don't touch me, bro, just relax.

MAN: Sorry, sorry, sorry. I am not a bad bloke...

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: I don't think you are. I just think you've had too much to drink. You need to go home.

MAN: No, no that's fine but this bloke over here...

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Yeah.

MAN: ...has dead set just shoved me around like I am a little bitch all night. And I just want to go home and go to bed.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: I reckon that is just the best thing you've had.

My name is Constable Lindsay from Rocks Police. I am giving you an official move along direction. You are not to be in the city for another six hours, alright man?

MAN: No worries, no worries.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Enjoy your night. Go home.

MAN: No worries.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Go that way. See ya.

MAN: Yep, no worries. Thanks very much, officer.

(Constable Lindsay walks back over to the couple standing near the ATM with Constable Burnell)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Get out of here.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Go that way, man.

I'd much rather turn up and break it up and get them on their own way than turn up and someone be injured or in a worse way. So it was good work by Katie.

(Whooping on Oxford Street, Constable Lindsay speaking to a man)

Hey, talk to me, don't talk to him.

JANINE COHEN: For every good result the young constables get, there's a bad one just around the corner.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: You're acting like a child, mate. Grow up.

(Outside another venue)

My name's Constable Lindsay from the Rocks Police. Get your license out...

JANINE COHEN: It's 3am and a man is refusing to leave the Argyle Hotel at the Rocks.

(Police struggle with a large drunk man, someone tries to block the camera)

MAN: Get on the ground! You touch me?

JANINE COHEN: Constable Lindsay takes the man outside, who suddenly becomes violent and attacks him.

(Several police subdue the man on the street)

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: My name is Constable Lindsay. You are under arrest for assaulting police. Do you understand that?

MAN: Oh yeah...

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Anything you say or do, I will record. Do you understand that?

MAN: Yes.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY (panting): Right, now he's got to get handcuffed.

POLICE: He's resisting.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Pull your arm out!

MAN: Pull your arm out, dickhead!

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Why are you here?

JANINE COHEN: Outside the police station, Constable Burnell has to deal with the offender's drunken friends.

FRIEND 1: He was ganged up upon and taken away so that's why I am here.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: 'Ganged up upon?'

FRIEND 1: Yes.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: He just had me pushed up against the wall up there. I have got a sore elbow.

FRIEND 1: I'm sorry that you have got a sore elbow.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: So I want you to go away.

FRIEND 1: He's the...

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: We don't get paid enough money to get bashed, okay?

We're not here to be assaulted.

FRIEND 1: That guy is just the most pure of soul that you will ever meet in your life. I promise you that.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: I'm telling you now, from what I just saw he is feral.

FRIEND 2: No he's not. Respect to everything you do but he's not like that.

(Inaudible comments from another friend)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Look at him up there! We had to get three cops to get his hand down to handcuff him.

FRIEND 1: That's just stock standard what you do, though.

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Really?!

JANINE COHEN: Tonight the cells at the Rocks police station are full, mostly of drunk and violent people.

(Three police approach the station with a shirtless man)

CONSTABLE KATIE BURNELL: Shirt off, never a good sign. Why do guys always want to take their shirt off when they fight?

JANINE COHEN: This man was also charged with assaulting police after he refused to leave a hotel.

POLICE OFFICER: Just letting you know, you're under arrest for assaulting police, like we said before...

JANINE COHEN: Thousands of police across the country are assaulted each year in alcohol-fuelled attacks.

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: You can't go in there.

WOMAN: This is my boyfriend - please!

CONSTABLE SHANE LINDSAY: Just wait!

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NICK KALDAS: The most frustrating and probably distressing thing is when you get up in the morning and you read the reports and you realise that some of your officers have been hurt. And they've been hurt by someone who is so drunk that they couldn't exercise proper judgement in what they were doing.

It's unnecessary. It's unacceptable.

(Close up of hospital chart for Sam Ford)

JANINE COHEN: Sam Ford survived the alcohol-fuelled attack three years ago in Coolangatta but it has left him profoundly disabled.

(Video footage of Sam being massaged on a hospital bed while in a coma - 18 Oct 2009)

After 38 days in a coma, doctors thought he would never leave his hospital bed.

(Close up of Sam's eyes staring blankly)

MARGARET FORD: Sam has severe brain damage. He can't walk, he can't talk. He's deaf in his left ear. He has double vision. He can only see with one eye patched. He can't smell.

He can't do anything for himself, really, and it's very difficult for him to communicate.

So for the first two years I continued to work and visit the hospital every night.

(Talking to Sam in the present day)

Good morning, buddy.

(Sam smiles, his father leaning against him on the bed)

MICHAEL FORD: Are you ready to get up, okay?

SAM FORD: Mm.

MICHAEL FORD: Going to have a shower?

(Michael pulls Sam up out of bed) Ready, set, up.

JANINE COHEN: Margaret and Michael have given up their careers to look after Sam.

MICHAEL FORD: There you go...

JANINE COHEN: He needs 24 hour care.

JOEL FORD, SAM'S YOUNGER BROTHER: Sam's life now... to describe it is pretty hard. Every day is more of a job. Every day is a routine for Sam. It's wake up in the morning, have breakfast and dad has to come and shower him and put him on the toilet.

JANINE COHEN: Sam is paralysed down one side and has seizures.

(Margaret Ford chopping watermelon)

MARGARET FORD: So I have to chop everything up for him. He has to sort of have everything just in bite size pieces.

(Sam eating watermelon pieces from a tray)

Just one piece of watermelon at a time, buddy. You are going to choke on it!

See? It's too big. And it always makes you cough. Because, you know, the watermelon juice. Alright?

One piece at a time. Okay.

(Sam nods)

Alright. Good.

(Home videos of Sam before the accident, fit, tan and leaping off a cliff into the sea)

JANINE COHEN: Before the attack, Sam was a natural athlete.

JOEL FORD: He just lived in the water and since we were really young, when Dad used to take us up the beach, it was just always hard to get him out.

(Still photograph of Sam at the beach)

MARGARET FORD: He was really well liked. He was good at sport, he was good at everything. He made everyone laugh, just loved life.

Everyone loved Sam - heaps of friends. The girls loved him too. He's such a handsome boy.

PHYSIOTHERAPIST: Again, just standing on that right knee...

JANINE COHEN: Now Sam is trying to learn to walk again.

He needs several intensive therapies, including three 90 minute sessions of physiotherapy a week.

(Physiotherapist supports Sam as he walks haltingly along a path)

PHYSIOTHERAPIST: Chest out - lovely job...

MICHAEL FORD: Physiotherapy is incredibly important to Sam's recovery and I feel he would not be out of bed - or if he was, he'd be just sitting in a corner somewhere and we won't let that happen.

PHYSIOTHERAPIST: Good job... heel-toe, heel-toe...

JANINE COHEN: Financially, the family are struggling with the huge medical costs. At one point they thought they would lose their home. Friends have set up a trust to pay for some of Sam's expenses.

RYLAND FORD: Sam's journey over the last three years has been very rocky, an uphill battle really.

(Shot comes into focus on a ceiling mounted CCTV camera, muffles shouts and screams in the background)

JANINE COHEN: The night of October 10, 2009 has also changed another young man's life.

(Still shots of Damian Ford in handcuffs)

The day after the attack, police arrested 18 year old Damian Ford - no relation. He was jailed for six years and nine months but with good behaviour served only two.

(Mug shot of Damian Ford's face with a black eye)

Damian Ford was a promising local footballer whose life changed forever in a moment of drunken rage.