Warning this article contains details that may disturb some people.
Body cam footage has emerged of a gruesome attack on two Australian police officers where a man is repeatedly bashing them with a baseball bat.
On Wednesday, footage was released of Victoria Police officers Rowan Baldham and William Ringin showing the moment they were questioning a teenager in Warrnambool, Victoria as to why he wasn't wearing a facemask, which was required by the state's COVID restrictions. The incident happened in October 2021.
As the officers approached the teenager, Warrnambool man Steven Cleary was driving past and pulled over in his car, where he approached the policemen with a baseball bat, 7 News Australia reported.
As the officers are talking to the 50-year-old to try and stop him from interfering, the teenager allegedly reached for one of the officer's guns and Cleary began hitting Baldham with a metal baseball bat repeatedly before fellow officer Ringin managed to pull it from the defendant's hands.
Ringin, who was only 21 years old at the time, then hit Cleary with the bat before the 50-year-old attacker is eventually capsicum sprayed and tasered by both officers.
Cleary's lawyer told a court he suffered from a delusional mental illness that he refuses to get treatment for and that at the time of the incident, he believed in COVID conspiracy theories and struggled with the lockdown, 7 News Australia reported.
Whilst in Court on Wednesday, Baldham was emotionally distressed after watching the vision again.
"Hearing the sound I made when I'm hit is the worst bit for me. I didn't know I was capable of making such a sound."
In the bodycam footage, the side of Baldham's face was covered in blood.
Baldham told the judge he did not think he would make it out alive if his partner did not help him.
"I am convinced that without his intervention, I would have been beaten to death," 7 News Australia reported.
Cleary is set to be sentenced on Friday.
