Cop in the dock after drug raid in Maryborough, Victoria

A MAN saw "stars I'd never seen before" after a Victorian policeman "choke slammed" him on a concrete floor during a drug raid, a court has heard.

It was also alleged police told Darren Joy to tell anyone who asked that his injured collarbone was a result of falling off a ladder.

Sen-Constable Grant Allan from Maryborough is charged with 10 offences including intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury, and perverting the course of justice.

Mr Joy told a committal hearing at Bendigo Magistrates' Court yesterday police had come to his Maryborough home with a warrant early in the morning looking for drugs.

Constable Allan pushed him inside the house after telling him "I'm sick of you monkeys lying to us". Mr Joy, 46, said the policeman then gripped his throat. "He carried me from the kitchen to the lounge room and then choke slammed me," he said. "He just lost it. I was seeing stars that I'd never seen before."

Mr Joy denied he was a drug mule but admitted to smoking marijuana frequently.

Another policeman who was at the scene of the alleged assault, Sen-Constable Charles Heatherley, said he had witnessed a physical altercation between Mr Joy and Constable Allan, despite earlier claiming he hadn't seen anything. Constable Heatherley gave evidence that he had changed his original statement because it was filled with lies.

Constable Heatherley denied pointing the finger at his colleague to spare himself from charges. He said the experience of the drug search and OPI inquiry had put him on the brink of a breakdown.

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