‘He's bleeding': Police footage reveals moment after street punch

News.com.au

04-06-2025

Shocking body-worn footage shown to a jury captures the moment police found a father of two unconscious and bleeding, minutes after he was allegedly punched by a former rugby league player during a street altercation.
Oshae Jackson Tuiasau, 29, has pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to unlawfully striking 39-year-old Toro George, who died in hospital eight days after the alleged attack on December 19, 2021, in Surfers Paradise.
Mr Tuiasau, a former Gold Coast Titans player and Queensland under 20 representative, claims he acted in self-defence during an escalating early morning altercation.
Police body-worn camera footage played to the jury showed Mr George unconscious and slumped on a seat as officers questioned the group he had been with.
'What happened to him, he's bleeding,' one officer asked, before another checked Mr George's pulse and confirming he was still alive.
Police then laid him down on the bench, with one officer, who continually monitored Mr George's condition, describing his pulse as going 'a hundred miles an hour'.
'A big thump, thump, thump, thump,' the officer said in the footage.
'Got an ambulance coming for you, mate,' he added.
The officer can also be heard saying, 'It looks like he's gasping for air.
'He's got blood pouring out of his nose too.'
About four minutes later, the officer reported he could no longer detect a pulse.
'I think his pulse is gone … yep,' he said.
The officers quickly moved Mr George onto the ground, ripped open his shirt and began CPR.
Witness Odain Marsters told police at the time that Mr George had simply collapsed, while another family member, Lekisha Marsters, repeated the same story.
Under questioning, Mr Marsters admitted that he had not been truthful.
'I thought that he was going to be all right, I didn't want things to get more serious,' he said.
Mr Marsters said he urged the group not to speak to police until they had 'clear heads'.
The jury was told that Mr George's fatal injury came after a night of escalating tension sparked by a sexual assault allegation at Havana RnB Nightclub.
Earlier in the evening, a young woman told the court that she had been celebrating her 19th birthday when a man, later identified as Mr George, allegedly touched her inappropriately on the dance floor.
'A male touched me inappropriately … in my crotch area,' she said.
'His hand started above my belly button and was pushed against my tummy and went down to my vagina.'
She said she didn't consent to it.
The woman said she immediately told her brother, who then confronted Mr George.
'I went up to him straight away and grabbed him,' the brother told the court.
He said they were 'mouthing off' at each other and Mr George started laughing, which made him 'more angry'.
CCTV footage captured the resulting confrontation on the nightclub floor that quickly escalated as others became involved and security moved in to break up the fight.
The footage showed pushing and growing tensions between two groups.
Mr George's cousin, Junior Marsters, testified that he had also heard rumours that Mr George had 'touched' a woman and confronted him, but Mr George denied it.
After being told to leave by security, the groups gathered outside the nightclub before police arrived and separated the parties.
Detective Sergeant Michael Bradley, who was rostered in the safe night precinct that night, said his team dispersed the crowd and walked Mr George, Ms Marsters and Odain Marsters away from the club.
'We tried to keep all parties separate,' Sergeant Bradley told the court.
Body-worn camera footage showed the trio walking casually to a set of traffic lights, laughing and appearing to be in good spirits.
They then encountered another group, which included Mr Tuiasau, but everyone told police they were fine, and officers let them go.
'There was no aggression whatsoever,' Sergeant Bradley said.
Junior Marsters, along with other members of the group, testified that Mr George and Mr Tuiasau had shaken hands and made peace.
'He apologised … (Tuiasau) accepted the apology,' Mr Marsters told the court.
After letting the group go on their way, Sergeant Bradley said moments later a member of the public alerted police to an incident in the direction the group had walked.
When officers arrived, they found Mr George unconscious on a bench, surrounded by the group.
An officer initially found a pulse, but Mr George's heart soon stopped, prompting police to begin CPR before paramedics arrived.
Earlier in the trial, the jury viewed CCTV footage showing the moment Mr George was allegedly struck.
The court was told that after parting ways with the officers, tensions flared again as the group walked through Surfers Paradise just before 4am.
As the group continued walking, Mr George became increasingly agitated, insisting on returning to find his brothers. Witnesses said he was speaking loudly in a mix of Cook Island Maori and English, while CCTV footage showed shoving between him and other members of the group.
Mr Tuiasau, who appeared uninvolved in the physical exchanges, was walking on the far side of the group.
The footage showed Mr George leaning toward him before Mr Tuiasau suddenly struck him once in the face. Mr George fell backwards and hit his head on the pavement.
He immediately lost consciousness.
In court, Mr George's widow Arden George became visibly distressed when the footage was played, turning away and crying. Family members audibly gasped when the blow was shown for the first time.
Ms Marsters described being in disbelief, seeing her uncle fall to the ground.
'I was in shock … I tried to help him up to get him on to the chair,' she said.
Odain Marsters told the court that Mr Tuiasau said 'that is what you get' after the punch.
Ms Marsters said she did not hear that remark.
Under cross-examination, both admitted they initially told police that Mr George had simply fallen and hit his head. They did not explain why they had not told the truth at the time.
Another witness, Dylan Thoroughgood, a friend of the Marsters family who was with the group that night, also admitted to lying in his initial statement to police.
'I didn't want to be involved in something like this,' he said.
'I didn't know he was going to pass away.'
Under cross-examination, he answered 'yes' when asked if he lied because he knew some of the group had taken cocaine and to also protect Mr George, who had become angry leading up to the punch.
However, when questioned at other times about why he lied, he would also say, 'I don't know'.
Mr Tuiasau was arrested at 4.30am and interviewed later that morning at the Southport watch house. In the recorded interview played to the jury, he admitted to throwing the punch.
'I looked at him and then I, I hit him … I punched him,' he told police.
'It was a good night … up until the very end.'
He said he had been drinking throughout the night and felt 'triggered' after hearing what Mr George had allegedly done to someone he knew.
Crown prosecutor Toby Corsbie told the court that Mr Tuiasau had lashed out after learning of the alleged assault, but the punch was a 'single moment in time, a single choice' that caused Mr George's heart to stop.
Mr Tuiasau's barrister, Craig Eberhardt KC, argued that his client acted in self-defence against 'a drunk and aggressive man who had already sexually assaulted a woman that night'.
'It is tragic that he died,' Mr Eberhardt told the court.
He said some of the witnesses were not being truthful in their accounts of what happened that night.