SA rapper Patrick ‘Mastacraft’ Whyntie plea deal on string of charges
He was once the talk of the town after his plans for Heatwave Festival fell spectacularly flat. Then US rapper Xzibit threw a chair at him. Now he’s been sentenced in court.
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An 11th hour plea bargain has spared the exact details of an Adelaide rapper and former festival promoter’s charges being heard in court.
Patrick James Whyntie, 35, of St Clair, was due to stand trial on Wednesday in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on charges of assault, assault causing harm, indecent assault and knowingly distributing an invasive image of a person over 17.
But just minutes before his trial was set to start his counsel initiated negotiations with the prosecution that would see the court closed to the media, and the details left unsaid.
About an hour later Whyntie, his parents and his counsel emerged from the courtroom having struck a deal to have all eight assault related charges withdrawn with a plea of guilty to the final count of distributing the image entered.
Senior counsel for Wyntie then extended his arm to offer his client a handshake before saying, “congratulations”.
Whyntie then headed to the court’s justice of the peace to sign a good behaviour bond he entered into as part of the plea.
Court documents showed the charges against Whyntie were alleged to have taken place between 2017 and 2019 at Queenstown and St Clair.
The allegation of distributing the image, to which Whyntie pleaded guilty, was alleged to have happened in September 2020, almost a year after the final charge of assault.
Whyntie earned his name in the SA music scene as rapper “Mastacraft” before an ambitious plan to organise and promote the doomed Heatwave Festival fell spectacularly flat in 2012.
Similarly to the infamous Fyre Festival, Whyntie “bit off more than he could chew”, leading to the festival into liquidation and some contractors not being paid for their work.
Later that year, liquidators for the festival chased US rap outfit D12, suing them in the Adelaide Magistrates Court for $35,475.73 after they failed to show up to the festival.
Continuing his music promotion despite the festival failure, Whyntie was at Adelaide’s Uni Bar promoting an Xzibit performance when the American rapper and Pimp My Ride host threw a chair at him and reportedly slapped him in the face.
Magistrate Paul Foley did not convict Whyntie, but placed him on a 12-month $200 good behaviour bond.
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