OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada - December 14, 2010 - This is the shocking moment an innocent woman was violently assaulted and then strip-searched by police in what a judge has described as an “indignity to a human being”.

The video shows a female special constable kneeing a 27-year-old woman in the back, before she is pinned to the ground and then has her shirt and bra cut off with scissors while other officers stand by and watch.

In a case that has provoked outrage in Canada and spawned a wave of public complaints against police, makeup artist Stacy Bonds was then left half-naked in a cold cell for three hours.

Ms. Bonds, who had no criminal history, was arrested in September 2008 in the Canadian capital of Ottawa for public intoxication.

But footage of the arrest only emerged after a judge threw out all charges against Ms. Bonds, sparking a review of detention policies and a backlash against the Ottawa Police Service.

The case led to the release of another video showing the same female officer, Special Constable Melanie Morris, appearing to kick Terry Delay, a homeless man, while another officer dragged him into his cell.

It has also emerged another of the officers involved in the strip-search used excessive force on a woman who he kicked and shocked with a Taser while in custody - just four days before the arrest of Ms. Bonds.

There are now at least four videos under investigation that show “questionable behavior” by Ottawa Police.

Judge Richard Lajoie of the Ontario Court of Justice ruled last month that Ms. Bonds's detention and strip-search was a “clear violation” of her rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

He said while Ms. Bonds had been drinking when she was arrested, there was “no evidence the accused was a threat to herself or anyone else” and there were no grounds to detain her.

Justice Lajoie said the video showed Ms. Bonds received “two extremely violent knee hits in the back” and was then forced to the ground outside the cells, where an officer cut off her shirt and bra with scissors.

He said there was “no reasonable explanation” for the strip-search: “It is more than evident that the search was an extremely serious breach of Ms. Bonds's rights.”

The judge ruled Ms. Bonds had been illegally strip-searched, and said it would be a “travesty to permit these proceedings to go on” because of the “appalling behaviors” of police officers in the video.

The case has caused outrage in Ottawa's black community and brought accusations of racial profiling.

The province's Special Investigations Unit - a civilian-based organization that reviews cases of death, serious injury or sexual assault that involve police - is now probing the actions of the five officers.

Ottawa Police have since uncovered two more videos showing “questionable behavior” by officers.

That forced Ottawa Police Acting Chief Gilles Larochelle to last week order another outside agency, the Ontario Provincial Police, to probe the growing list of complaints.

None of the officers involved in the incident have been formally suspended or charged, but Sgt. Steven Desjourdy, who was once part of the Ottawa Police media relations team, has since pleaded guilty over the separate Taser attack and has been demoted to first-class constable for 90 days.

The Canadian Police Association has urged the public not to “rush to judgment” about the officers in the Stacy Bonds video and “allow the process to take its course”.