logo
AFL great Nicky Winmar accused of two assaults and intentionally choking a person

AFL great Nicky Winmar accused of two assaults and intentionally choking a person

The Guardian29-07-2025
AFL great Nicky Winmar has been accused of two assaults and of intentionally choking a person, court documents reveal.
The former St Kilda star, 59, had been listed for an application to revoke bail at Melbourne magistrates court on Tuesday, which could have seen him thrown in jail.
However, a prosecutor asked for this to be struck out.
'The court made the decision to bail Mr Winmar on the 19th of July based on that application,' she said, as the magistrate agreed to strike it out.
Winmar faced court charged with three offences, however details of what these allege were not aired during the short hearing.
He has been charged with allegedly committing two assaults on 18 July.
He is also charged with 'without lawful excuse intentionally choke, strangle or suffocate' a person on the same date, according to court documents.
Winmar, whose legal name is Neil, was represented in court on Tuesday morning by his lawyer Tess Theocharous and both of them appeared via video link.
Theocharous said Winmar was undergoing a court integrated services program (CISP) as a condition of his bail, which had been granted on 18 July.
She asked for his matter to be adjourned so he can have time to engage with the program.
Theocharous said Winmar had attended an initial appointment at the court for CISP and had another scheduled for later on Tuesday.
Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano agreed to adjourn his case for a month.
Winmar will next face the court on 28 August.
The AFL legend became the first Aboriginal footballer to play 200 games in the league, finishing his career with 230 games at St Kilda and 21 for the Western Bulldogs.
He fought back against a number of acts of racism throughout his football career, including standing in front of a Collingwood crowd in 1993 where he was abused.
'I'm black and I'm proud to be black,' he told the crowd, lifting his guernsey and pointing at his skin.
In March, he was asked to co-lead a landmark racism class action in the supreme court, brought by other retired Indigenous players including Phil Krakouer.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Footy player confronts the cop who LIED during sexual assault case that almost ended his career
Footy player confronts the cop who LIED during sexual assault case that almost ended his career

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

Footy player confronts the cop who LIED during sexual assault case that almost ended his career

Jack De Belin has attended court on Tuesday as the police officer who perjured himself during the NRL star's sexual assault trial argued he should be spared from spending time in jail. Legal counsel for the police officer, who can only be referred to as Officer A due to a suppression order, argued in the Wollongong District Court that their client should be spared jail. Mr De Belin and Callan Sinclair - who was his co-accused during the sexual assault trial - were also in attendance for the hearing, with the officer now set to return to court for sentencing on September 12. Officer A had pleaded guilty to one count of perjury after he gave false evidence under oath during a pre-trial hearing in relation to the proceedings against the St George Illawarra player and his friend Sinclair. The charge relates to his handling of legally privileged text messages that were found on De Belin's mobile phone, which was seized as part of police investigations in 2019. De Belin and Sinclair were accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in December 2018. The Director of Public Prosecutions later dropped the charges against both men. De Belin and Sinclair have maintained their innocence throughout, stating any sexual contact was consensual. Police had accessed 203 text messages on De Belin's phone as part of their investigations, with prosecutor Ciro Triscari telling the court on Tuesday that 190 of those messages contained 'privileged communications between Mr De Belin and his lawyer', Craig Osborne. Osborne, who is also a director at St George Illawarra Dragons, was labelled in De Belin's phone as 'Craig Lawyer' and had been representing him during the proceedings. During a pre-trial hearing in February 2020, counsel for De Belin and Sinclair argued that accessing this information on the seized mobile phone breached their clients' right to a fair trial. They subsequently issued a stay application for proceedings, which was rejected. The pair first appeared in the NSW District Court in 2020, but the trial ended without a verdict. A second trial took place in 2021, but the jury again failed to reach a verdict, with the charges against them eventually dropped. Officer A had been the subject of an internal three-year investigation by the NSW Police Professional Standards Command and was later charged with perjury relating to the evidence he gave at the pre-trial hearing. He had told the court that the correspondence on De Belin's phone with 'Craig Lawyer' related only to 'Dragons business'. But the police officer also admitted to knowing Mr Osborne was working for RMB Lawyers - the firm which was representing De Belin during the proceedings. Officer A has since pleaded guilty to perjuring himself by falsely claiming that the information in the messages pertained only to 'Dragons business'. Prosecutor Triscari told the court on Tuesday that Officer A had 'deliberately misled the court' when making that statement. The prosecutor said: 'This represents a serious example of perjury when one considers the position occupied by the offender in question. 'The proceedings are serious criminal proceedings where the liberty of individuals was at stake.' Officer A's barrister Peggy Dwyer SC told the court that her client had been suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive illnesses after being subjected to 'gruesome and disturbing incidents' during his employment as a police officer. 'There can be no doubt he was suffering from PTSD in February and that it impacted his capacity to give evidence,' Dwyer told the court. She argued that the perjury was 'an innocent mistake' that had been 'made in a moment of panic' and said Officer A was a 'man of great character'. Dwyer argued that the actions of Officer A had not impacted the eventual trial of De Belin or Sinclair. 'This was not a case where anything [Officer A] did or didn't do changed whether or not they were charged,' Dwyer said. Counsel for Officer A then urged the court not to impose a jail term on their client. Instead, Dwyer told the court that any custodial sentence that potentially might be handed down should be served in the community as part of an Intensive Corrective Order. Dwyer told the court that any jail term could be 'catastrophic' for Officer A's well-being. The police officer had been stood down from his role in August 2023 on medical grounds. Meanwhile, De Belin was sidelined from playing for the Dragons for three years under the NRL's no-fault stand-down rule while the legal proceedings took place.

Yahoo Serious still REFUSES to leave the multimillion-dollar beachside home he was accused of squatting in - despite being issued a court order
Yahoo Serious still REFUSES to leave the multimillion-dollar beachside home he was accused of squatting in - despite being issued a court order

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

Yahoo Serious still REFUSES to leave the multimillion-dollar beachside home he was accused of squatting in - despite being issued a court order

A defiant Yahoo Serious refuses to leave the multi-million dollar Sydney home he has been accused of squatting in. Serious, 72, appeared on A Current Affair this week when the landlord responsible for the property in Sydney's Palm Beach came to confront the former film star. He is said to be living illegally with his Jack Russell terrier in the multi-million-dollar home of Charles Phillip Porter, who is in his 90s and in a nursing home. The actor had been ordered to exit the multi-storey house on Barrenjoey Road by August 4. Margaret Charlton is the landlord and holds power of attorney for Charles Phillip Porter, the home's owner, who is currently in a nursing home. She told ACA she needed to sell the property to pay for Porter's mounting nursing home fees. Reading from a court order, Margaret said: 'The order for possession is suspended until the fourth of August... which means that I get the property back.' Margaret then entered the property, surprised to find Yahoo still inside. 'You've been living in this property while Margie's been trying to sell it to pay for Phillip's aged care,' reporter Pippa Bradshaw told the Young Einstein star. 'He's got dementia – he can sell the property,' Serious flippantly replied. When told that Charlton had been unable to sell the property while Serious was occupying it, he defiantly protested that he was not squatting and was 'sick.' 'I'm not squatting – [I'm] surviving,' Serious said. 'Look at the weather out there – it's really, really dangerous.' Removalists then arrived to begin stripping the property of belongings; however, Serious refused to budge. 'Yahoo is still refusing to go, even though we are taking all the old furniture out so the house can be sold,' Charlton said. She added that the situation would soon be escalated if Serious continued to flout the court order. 'We have booked a sheriff. As soon as the sheriff comes... if he refuses to go... the police will be called and he'll be physically removed from the property,' Charlton said. Speaking to Daily Mail in July, Serious denied that he was squatting at the property, despite a tribunal hearing having given him a deadline to vacate. 'You've got it all wrong,' he insisted. Charlton also told Daily Mail Australia the former star has cost the homeowner $70,000 in nursing home fees because he refused to move out. In March, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard that Serious used to live in the granny flat beneath the dilapidated property, which stands among the mansions overlooking picturesque Pittwater. The tribunal was told the owner had allowed Serious to move into the granny flat, as the former screen star was living rough in his ageing BMW sedan, but he moved into the main house when Mr Porter was put into care. On April 24, the tribunal initially gave Serious six weeks to move out, Charlton told Daily Mail. 'But his lawyer said he needed 12 weeks because he's a sick man with lymphoma,' she said. Serious – and his wild haircut at the time – became suddenly famous when he starred in 1988's Young Einstein movie and then 1993's Reckless Kelly. But he later fell on hard times and was taken in by Porter and Charlton several years ago. He was recently seen looking very gaunt, amid concerns for his health. Serious told the tribunal he should be allowed to remain in the home because he was Mr Porter's carer, which Ms Charlton strongly disputes. 'Phillip - we call him Phillip, not Charles, is a family friend, he has been for years and years,' she said. 'He's never been married, never had children, so he made me power of attorney and trustee. 'He was getting old and getting dementia, and was having trouble looking after himself, so I was doing all his cooking. 'It wasn't like Yahoo was his carer. He wasn't bathing him or dressing him. I was washing his clothes, we had a cleaner coming in.

The Knox Grammar curse: As an old boy is accused of the unthinkable, we reveal the scandals the private school wants you to forget - and the horror story that made Kyle Sandilands tear up his son's application
The Knox Grammar curse: As an old boy is accused of the unthinkable, we reveal the scandals the private school wants you to forget - and the horror story that made Kyle Sandilands tear up his son's application

Daily Mail​

time2 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

The Knox Grammar curse: As an old boy is accused of the unthinkable, we reveal the scandals the private school wants you to forget - and the horror story that made Kyle Sandilands tear up his son's application

Tucked away in Sydney 's leafy Wahroonga, Knox Grammar is one of Australia's most prestigious schools - home to rugby stars, old money and generations of tradition. It's the kind of place where blazers are pressed, surnames carry weight and relationships are formed that can last a lifetime.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store