Former police officer Beard avoids conviction over Sydney assault — ABC News Australia

In Sydney, Australia, former senior police officer Jonathan Andrew Beard avoided a conviction for assaulting two men in September 2024. The Downing Centre Local Court imposed a two-year good behaviour bond on the 57-year-old Beard for two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, ABC News Australia reports.

Assault after a knock and run game

According to the court, on 21 September 2024, Charlie Mannus and Rory Fendell were among a group playing knock and run after an 18th birthday celebration: participants knocked on the doors of houses and ran away. They knocked on the door of Beard's home in inner Sydney and then hid.

Beard pursued the men, who had run away from the house, and assaulted them in a concrete laneway. The incident was captured by CCTV cameras. During the assault, the men were punched, pushed and dragged to the ground; Mannus suffered a dislocated shoulder.

Judge Jacqueline Milledge noted that the young men's behaviour was foolish, but they did not deserve the consequences they suffered. She described the incident as not trivial and stressed that it should not have happened.

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Court took former officer's condition into account

The court heard that the day before the assault, Beard had visited a doctor over psychological and physical injuries he sustained during his police service. According to the judge, before the incident he had reported symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, including sleep problems, withdrawn behaviour and constant vigilance.

Milledge said Beard's decision-making capacity was significantly impaired that evening. At the same time, prosecutor Patrick Mulvihill argued for a conviction, stressing that the former officer was not in immediate danger.

Following the incident, Beard was suspended from duty on pay, and in November 2025 he left the New South Wales Police early on medical grounds. Beard had previously been the Kings Cross commander and received the Australian Police Medal for distinguished service in 2021.