A woman has slammed police after she was ‘treated like an animal in a cage’ during a strip search at a music festival.
Monique Sellars attended a music festival in Wollongong, south of Sydney, in 2021.
Ms Sellars explained it was her first year of university and her first year living out of home when she and a group of friends decided to attend their very first music festival.
Upon entering the festival, a police sniffer dog jumped onto the then 19-year-old Ms Sellars, and she was immediately taken into a makeshift police tent for a strip search.
Ms Sellars said the area had about three gazebos, each with three makeshift walls and one side completely open to the rest of the police search area.
A female officer introduced herself and explained the process of the strip search before instructing Ms Sellars to remove her clothes.
The officer patted down her body and felt around Ms Sellars’ corset as she searched for any drugs or prohibited substances.
‘I was told to sit on the floor. They took my clothes away. So I was just like sitting on the floor in a G-string and corset, exposed to the rest of the police search area,’ Ms Sellars told 10 News.
Western Australian woman Monique Sellars said she was ‘treated like an animal in a cage’ during a police search at a music festival
Ms Sellars, who was 19-years-old at the time, was attending a music festival in Wollongong when a police sniffer dog jumped onto her
No drugs were found, but police did find a pouch of vodka, which they confiscated.
Ms Sellars claimed a male officer then entered the area unannounced and grabbed her bumbag containing all her personal belongings while she was still barely clothed.
Sitting frozen on the ground, Ms Sellars said she did not know who had access to the area, who was allowed to enter, or whether people from the festival were able to see her.
She added she felt like ‘an animal in a cage’ and that her entire strip-search ordeal was a ‘very violating situation.’
‘Even though I had done nothing wrong, they just made me feel really guilty. It was condescending, violating, not humane,’ Ms Sellars said.
‘Being told to just sit on a grass floor for 10 minutes with barely any clothes on whilst they take your other belongings away, to just search without you around, it was really degrading.
‘I don’t think that having a dog come up and touch me was enough to have that kind of degrading experience.’
Ms Sellars is one of more than 3,000 Australians taking part in a class-action lawsuit against the NSW Police Force over their treatment during strip searches at music festivals.
Ms Sellars was immediately taken to a makeshift police tent where she was told to remove all her clothes for a strip search (pictured, police dogs on display)
Ms Sellars’ said the experience was ‘condescending, violating and not humane’ and left her with long-lasting anxiety whenever she encounters security or police officers (pictured, police seen on patrol during Splendour in the Grass 2023)
It comes after another woman, Raya Meredith, was awarded $93,000 in damages after the Supreme Court of NSW found her strip search unlawful.
Ms Meredith was at the Splendour in the Grass festival in Byron Bay in 2018 when a drug detection dog sniffed towards her.
Police took Ms Meredith to a makeshift cubicle for a strip search and forced her to remove all her clothes, including her underwear and tampon.
A male police officer walked into the cubicle without warning to return her bag while Ms Meredith was still naked from the waist down.
Ms Meredith was detained for about 30 minutes and released after officers failed to detect drugs or any other prohibited items.
NSW Police officers argued the strip search was justified because the drug detection dog had sniffed towards Ms Meredith.
In September, Supreme Court of NSW Justice Dina Yehia condemned the humiliating and unlawful strip search and ruled in Ms Meredith’s favour.
“[NSW Police’s] conclusion was entirely wrong,” Justice Yehia said.
It comes after another woman was awarded $93,000 in damages after she was forced to remove her clothes, including her underwear and tampon, during a strip search at a Splendour in the Grass festival in 2018 (pictured, general view during Splendour in the Grass 2023)
‘She recalled feeling disgusted that another woman was putting her through this. She felt like vomiting.
Justice Yehia added the entire experience was degrading, humiliating and caused fear to Ms Meredith who felt compelled to obey police.
Ms Sellars has not specified an amount for what she believes would be fair compensation for her ordeal.
She added the experience has left her with heightened anxiety whenever she sees or has to pass through security, including at the airport.
However, she would like to see NSW Police make changes to their strip searching laws so that others do not have the same experience.
‘Strip searching, it’s a very, very personal invasion, and it can be very triggering for a lot of people,’ Ms Sellars said.
‘I think that’s something that’s kind of forgotten just because they are the police… how I felt as a 19-year-old, I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that.’
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