![](https://syndicates.s3.amazonaws.com/aap/assets/20240115150136/cbc5db02-f5f6-4b07-8e67-55ecee3dc7c4.jpg)
Footage of a young woman being violently thrown to the ground by police has been played during the court appeal for an officer who assaulted her.
Mark Anthony Follington sat in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Monday while the graphic clip was played to a judge.
The former senior constable has appealed his conviction over the violent May 2019 arrest of Anya Bradford in Sydney's southwest and the severity of a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
The footage showed Follington and probationary constable Mark Brown approaching Ms Bradford as she sat in the gaming room at the Golden Fleece Pub in Liverpool.
![Image from CCTV footage of the arrest of Anya Bradford (file image)](https://syndicates.s3.amazonaws.com/aap/assets/2024011516010/8b26be05-997f-4652-9e30-b2e6c33bfcf2.jpg)
While attempting to walk out the front door, she was blocked by the two officers during a heated argument.
She ran back into the building, before the footage appeared to show her being pushed and thrown into an ATM.
She later ran outside and down the street with the two officers in pursuit.
Entering another building, Ms Bradford tried to go into a lift but was thrown out and onto the floor by the two police officers before capsicum spray was used.
Handcuffed and escorted out of the building, Ms Bradford was seen being elbowed by Follington under her jaw, pushing her head to the side.
The former senior constable claimed he was acting in self-defence out of fear for his and probationary constable Brown's safety.
He claimed he pushed Ms Bradford's head aside to prevent her spitting on him or the other policeman on the scene.
Follington was found guilty on two assault charges and for creating false evidence about the arrest in his police notebook, in a police facts sheet handed to court and on the NSW Police COPS database.
In all three documents, he falsely wrote that Ms Bradford stood up from a poker machine and pushed him, causing him to lose balance.
The CCTV footage showed this to be incorrect, the court heard on Monday.
Judge William Fitzsimmons was told Follington's state of mind was an issue in the case and questions had been raised about whether his mild cognitive impairment meant he remembered the events of the day correctly.
Two mental health experts will be called to give evidence on this later in the appeal hearing.