A Northern Territory football player who fractured a man’s skull at a Darwin nightclub will spend the next seven months behind bars.
Key points:
- NTFL player Simon Bates will serve seven months in jail as part of a two-year partially suspended prison sentence
- His victim suffered a fractured skull and brain bleeding
- Judge Therese Austin said reports showed Bates had “good prospects” of rehabilitation
Former Wanderer’s vice-captain Simon Gordon Bates was found guilty of aggravated assault earlier this year, after breaking a man’s eye socket near the dance floor at Mayberry nightclub in November 2021.
The 30-year-old appeared in Darwin Local Court on Tuesday, where Judge Therese Austin handed down a partially suspended two-year prison sentence.
She ordered Bates to serve seven months in prison, followed by 17 months of strict conditions upon his release.
Judge Austin said the violent nightclub altercation had left a 21-year-old man with a fractured skull and brain bleeding, which rendered him unable to work for three months.
“This is an example of how catastrophic punching someone in this manner — especially if they have tasted alcohol — [can be],” she said.
“They might fall very heavily to the ground. I don’t know if that’s what’s happened in this case, but it can cause such serious injuries.”
She said the victim suffered from “constant headaches and severe pain”, as well as anxiety.
“Emotionally, the victim has described that he has lost confidence in himself and others,” she said.
“He gets very anxious and scared when he’s around other people.”
Judge Austin told the court that Bates had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, instead arguing he had acted in self-defence after being provoked — a claim she rejected “outright”.
“I found that the assault was an attack by you in a nightclub and that you were the aggressor, that you did punch him twice in the face in quick succession,” she told the court.
She also said she did not believe Bates had shown genuine remorse for his actions.
“I’m not really of the view that I have any evidence before me that Mr Bates was particularly remorseful for his conduct,” she said.
Judge Austin said Bates had been diagnosed with a series of psychiatric conditions including bipolar disorder, and that he had experienced long-term anger management issues.
However, she said he still had “good prospects of rehabilitation if he continues to engage with his medical practitioners”.
She also said she had taken into account his “prowess on the footy field” as a “positive pro-social matter”.
Source: AFL NEWS ABC
