On the 29th of May, the country was shocked by an image of a lockdown protester punching a police officer.

The confronting photo made headlines across Australia, and the man who threw that punch, Nick Patterson, was sent to jail.

After twenty-nine days behind bars, a judge released Mr Patterson on extremely harsh bail conditions.

His side of the story has never been told until now.

And the police bodycam footage from that day corroborates his version of events.

The media waited for the perfect shot of Nick Patterson throwing a punch and refused to share what happened prior.

It turns out the police struck first.