Taser officers were thuggish: NSW coroner - Sydney Morning Herald

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Police officers involved in the multiple tasering and death of a Brazilian student in Sydney engaged in reckless, dangerous and "thuggish" behaviour, the NSW coroner has found.

Magistrate Mary Jerram on Wednesday recommended five of 11 officers involved in restraining Roberto Laudisio Curti in Pitt Street on March 18 be considered for disciplinary charges.

She also referred the officers to the Police Integrity Commission and recommended a review of Taser use and training.

But the family of the 21-year-old has called for officers involved to face criminal charges.

Mr Curti, from Sao Paolo, died at the scene after officers discharged Tasers at him 14 times, used capsicum spray, handcuffs and a baton and knelt on him after a chase through Sydney's CBD.

Ms Jerram said Mr Curti, who had been studying English in Sydney, was acting bizarrely on the night, almost certainly in reaction to a dose of LSD he had taken earlier.

He stole biscuits from a convenience store and some police officers mistakenly believed they were dealing with an armed robber.

Ms Jerram said officers had clearly used excessive force in an abuse of police powers and were "in some instances even thuggish" and "out of control".

She was scathing in her criticism, saying at times officers' evidence to the inquest involved a suspicious "similarity of wording" and inability to remember events.

Ms Jerram said it appeared officers, many of them inexperienced, had been swept up in "an ungoverned pack mentality, like schoolboys in the Lord of the Flies".

She was particularly critical of Inspector Gregory Cooper, a sergeant at the time, whose evidence she rejected as "self-contradictory, self-serving and obscure".

Ms Jerram said he failed to prevent excessive use of force and his attempts to blame more junior officers after the event was "little short of contemptible".

"Pushing his entire weight on the back of a man prone, who was handcuffed and had just been tasered was hardly the action of an experienced, senior officer," she said.

The coroner said four constables should also be disciplined.

She recommended that police review their Taser use and training procedures, including whether the "drive-stun" mode should be banned and whether Tasers should be issued to probationary officers.

Procedures for using capsicum spray, handcuffing and restraint should also be reviewed, she said.

Officers should also be fully aware of the dangers of excessive Taser and capsicum use and of "positional asphyxia" when restraining people.

The coroner said an autopsy found no specific cause of death and she could only conclude Mr Curti died of undetermined causes in the course of being restrained by police officers.

She said Mr Curti's intake of LSD had made him paranoid, but he posed no threat to anyone else.

Outside court, Mr Curti's brother-in-law Michael Reynolds said the family and their lawyers believed criminal charges should be laid and had made a formal request to police to pursue such charges.

"Whilst nothing will ever bring Roberto back, we continue to push for those responsible to face the consequences for their appalling behaviour on that night," he said.

"By doing this we hope to prevent other young people and their families from suffering the way that we have."