Aussie cop could be jailed for leaking colleague's brutality

An Australian police officer who leaked video footage of his colleagues brutally bashing a handcuffed man could face charges and jail time for doing so, it was reported Friday.

While two of the officers involved were disciplined over the 2012 assault on Queensland's Gold Coast, leaking official footage is considered a more serious departmental offense.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman said the case goes to the heart of the risks whistleblowers take.

"Queenslanders will say what sort of a system have we got where a video shows a number of police belting the hell out of a bloke," AAP reported him as saying.

"They don't get charged, but the officer who leaks the video to the media gets charged."

The assault had already cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in a payout to the victim.

The leaked video footage was published by media outlets in 2012.

It showed a 21-year-old man being slammed face first into a concrete floor before being hit by officers using their knees, elbows and fists.

It showed the man again being punched after being put in the back of a police van, and a senior officer throwing a bucket of water on the concrete to wash away the man's blood.

He was then taken to an underground cell where he was punched, kicked and further assaulted over a period of time, all the while handcuffed.

He got into an argument with police on a night out which escalated into the assault. Endit