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NSW

Strip searches

Opinion

Strip-search harm must be stopped to protect our young people

Sam Lee Solicitor October 3, 2025 — 3.30pm

Despite this week’s NSW Supreme Court landmark judgment that was scathing of the ongoing and traumatic practice of police strip-searches, young people attending summer festivals can still be subject to the same traumatic procedures, which victims have compared to sexual abuse.

The judgment, from Justice Dina Yehia, is highly critical of this widespread practice, which has been allowed to continue unchecked for many years, despite ongoing concerns from community groups, politicians and harm minimisation advocates.

In 2019, Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame warned that strip-searches cause harm to young people and that the law must

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