NT casino bouncer loses bid to overturn assault conviction
A Northern territory casino bouncer has lost his bid to overturn an assault conviction, after he was found guilty of beating an unruly patron away from CCTV cameras.
Bouncers Rimoni Motuga and his co-accused, Gasolo Gasolo were working as senior security managers at Lasseters in Alice Springs in March 2021, when they were left to deal with “intoxicated” patron, Raymond Coull.
The bouncers asked Coull to leave, however the man “resisted and kicked out” as he was being escorted out.
Motuga “took him to the ground where he landed on his stomach and face”.
The Supreme Court heard that Coull then picked up a beer bottle and threw it at Motuga, hitting him on the head.
At this point, the bouncer radioed for backup.
When the pair of bouncers pulled Coull from the floor, the drunk punter headbutted Motuga’s face and was again “taken to the ground”.
When a fourth bouncer arrived, they took Coull into a “private corridor” with no CCTV coverage and proceeded to beat him, leaving Coull with two broken ribs, “blood and air in his chest cavity”, a black eye, abrasions and soft tissue swelling to the right elbow.
Motuga and Gasolo were later charged and found guilty of assault in the Alice Springs Local Court.
Motuga appealed his verdict to the Supreme Court.
“The account of (Motuga) was that when they entered the corridor, Mr Coull went facedown and started banging his head on the ground and ‘punching his head on the concrete’ which he corrected to say ‘carpet’,” presiding judge Trevor Riley said.
“When they released him, he started kicking again and punching them and three or four times he got to his feet and they had to put him down.
“Gasolo gave evidence that when they went through the door, Mr Coull fell to the floor and started hitting his head.
“He was kicking at them. They just picked him up and then he would drop and he did that on a number of occasions.”
In rejecting the appeal, Justice Riley said the two security guards’ version of events did not explain his injuries.
Irit Jackson, 20th April 2022
