Ian Philip Rooke: Cop blames tumour for 'unjustified, excessive' assaults

A senior constable has claimed he punched a man having a psychotic episode and hit a crying, drunk woman in the back in separate incidents due to his brain tumour.

Ian Philip Rooke, 43, pleaded guilty to two charges of common assault on Wednesday after he failed to convince a magistrate to deal with the case on mental health grounds.

The senior constable, who has been suspended with pay from NSW Police since July 2024, punched an intoxicated man having a psychotic episode in the head at a home in Sydney’s northwest on July 18, 2023.

The man tried to flee when officers attended the house and was eventually handcuffed, according to police facts filed with the court.

He moaned and refused to walk as Rooke and another constable tried to take him to a waiting ambulance.

“Mate, if you don’t,” Rooke said before clenching his fist and punching the man to the left side of his head.

In a separate incident, the 43-year-old was called to the car park of a northwest Sydney bowling club on November 9, 2023 where an intoxicated woman complained she had been attacked.

After interviewing witnesses, officers decided to arrest the 54-year-old woman for assaulting a number of other people.

Drunk and crying, she swore at Rooke before he pushed her and grabbed her left arm — leading to another constable telling him to relax.

As she resisted being restrained, the 43-year-old held the handcuffs in his right hand and punched the woman in the back.

“Don’t f***en hit me!” she screamed.

Arresting the woman, the officers placed her in their caged police vehicle.

“I don’t muck around,” Rooke told her.

“You want to tell me to go get f***ed, you want to take me on, you want to say you want to punch my head in, I’ll f***en treat you the same.

“I don’t care.”

An investigation launched in November 2023 found no evidence Rooke had acted in self-defence.

“Body-worn video footage pertaining to both matters is indicative of the accused using excessive and unjustified force,” court documents said.

Rooke’s solicitor Warwick Anderson on Wednesday argued the case could be dealt with on mental health grounds because of a “mandarin-sized brain tumour” inside the officer’s head at the time.

The crimes were serious, the lawyer admitted to Magistrate Stuart Devine in Parramatta Local Court.

“He’s a police officer, he’s on duty, there’s no room for this type of behaviour,” Mr Anderson said.

But both Rooke’s GP and a neurosurgeon said the brain tumour could be linked to changes in personality and behaviour at the time of the attacks.

Rooke described the symptoms as being like a frog in a pot of water that was gradually getting hotter so he didn’t notice them until it was too late, the court was told.

He had shown positive signs after surgery, which involved a piece of his skull being removed and a titanium plate being put in its place.

Prosecutor Claire Robinson urged the magistrate to deal with the matter with a conviction and sentence because the charges were serious and committed by a serving police officer.

Mr Devine rejected the mental health application, saying claims that Rooke’s significant cognitive impairments from the brain tumour were directly linked to the assaults were based “nothing more than a vibe kind of submission”.

The senior constable will obtain further medical reports before coming back for sentence on March 18.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636