Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
AFL legend Nicky Winmar has been found guilty of dragging a woman by her hair and repeatedly slamming her head into a door.
The former St Kilda star pleaded not guilty to a series of charges alleging he assaulted a woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, at Cohuna in Victoria’s north last May.
Magistrate Trieu Huynh on Friday found Mr Winmar did grab the woman’s arm, dragged her by her hair, and later slammed her head into a door.
The woman had given evidence that she was “petrified” and “fearful for her life” during the ordeal, the Bendigo Magistrates Court was told.
“He was just like grabbing me,” the woman told police when they arrived at the scene that evening.
She told officers Winmar had pulled some of her hair out as he dragged her, she felt “dizzy” and her pain was a 10/10 when he slammed her head into the door.
Mr Huynh found Winmar guilty of two charges of common law assault and one of unlawful assault but threw out a single charge of intentionally cause injury, as he could not find evidence that the pain was substantial enough to meet the legislative requirements.
Winmar’s legal team had argued the AFL legend was acting in self-defence during the ordeal.
The woman’s credibility was also attacked over the course of the hearing, with Winmar’s legal team relying on alleged inconsistencies in her evidence including that she did not tell police some of her hair had fallen out the next morning.
The woman in turn maintained she had been truthful and did not go into the details on the night as she just wanted Winmar to go away.
She told the court that she never mentioned other parts of evidence until the hearing as she didn’t think they were important to go into at the early stages of the investigation.
She added she didn’t give a full account to police at the beginning of the investigation because she was grappling with how “someone … could be so brutal”, the court was told on Friday.
Mr Huynh found the woman was a credible witness who gave “plausible accounts for the supposed inconsistencies in her evidence” and was “steadfast in her denials of fabrications”.
Winmar has not yet been convicted of the three assault charges, with the matter to return to court in August.
Winmar played 251 games over his 12-season AFL career and his iconic stand against racist abuse was immortalised in bronze outside Optus Stadium in Perth.
