Police are investigating the alleged assault of a childcare worker and international student by ticket inspectors at Middle Footscray Station.
Twenty-five year old Daphnie Palomo, originally from the Philippines, said she was pinned to ground for at least an hour by authorised officers, after they found her riding the Sunbury line train without a valid ticket on January 14.
Ms Palomo, who was returning home from her part-time job at a West Footscray child care centre, said she didn’t touch on her myki card because she couldn’t afford to and had no other way of getting back to her home in Carlton.
Speaking to Star Weekly two days after the incident, Ms Palomo said when the authorised officers asked to check her myki, she didn’t know how to react.
“All I could do was stand there. I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to do.”
Ms Palomo and the five ticket inspectors then got off at the next station at Middle Footscray, where the situation escalated, she said.
“From there I was still quite unresponsive out of pure fear. I just tried to walk away from them because I was scared because from the moment we hopped off they’d surrounded me in a circle.“
Ms Paloma said the five officers then each placed their hands on her shoulders and arms in an attempt to restrain her.
“The hands on me were getting so extremely painful that I felt one of my hands going numb and going purple and that’s when I started holding back my hands to get them off me and I started speaking out,” she said.
“Multiple times I said this is not okay, it hurts, stop.”
Ms Palomo claimed this was when the authorised officers pinned her on the ground, holding her there for about an hour until police arrived.
When police arrived, Ms Palomo said she they placed her in handcuffs.
She denied being violent towards the officers, but said she may have accidentally scratched one of them with her long fingernails.
Police issued Ms Palomo with a fine.
A later trip to hospital found extensive bruises on her arms and wrists and a scratch on her neck.
However, Ms Palomo said the mental scars were much deeper and that she had been unable to work or study since.
“Yesterday I wanted to see one of my friends and needed to hop on the train but I just couldn’t.”
A Victoria Police spokesperson said investigators have reviewed body worn camera footage of the incident and are satisfied with the police response.
A spokesperson for Department of Transport and Planning, which oversees PTV and authorised officers, said the safety of passengers and staff on public transport was taken very seriously, but would not comment while an investigation is underway.
