Roosters stars’ dad took down armed fugitive with ‘shoulder charge’

The father of Sydney Roosters stars Nat and Egan Butcher recalls the harrowing moment he shoulder-charged demented alleged prison escapee Jason Melbon to the ground.

Blake Butcher, the father of Roosters stars’ Nat and Egan Butcher, shoulder-charged alleged prison escapee, Jason Melbon as he rampaged through Malabar.

The father of Sydney Roosters stars Nat and Egan Butcher has told how he delivered a textbook “shoulder charge” to an armed prison escapee, who was on the run from Long Bay jail.

Blake Butcher, himself a former first grade player in the late 1980s and early ’90s for South Sydney, used the now banned tackling technique when he saw Jason Melbon, 43, running down his Malabar street with a knife.

Melbon only had 18 months left of his minimum nine-year sentence when he jumped the Long Bay fence and went on a rampage, during which he broke into homes, stole a woman’s car and tied up a screaming mother in her home.

That was until he encountered Mr Butcher, who was talking to his nephew on the footpath when he spotted Melbon breaking out of a house opposite and, determined to block the assailant, steeled himself and shoulder-barged the ­escapee to the ground.

Blake Butcher was standing on the footpath of his Malabar home when he shoulder charged a crazed inmate on the run Jason Melbon. Picture: Monique Harmer

Image of Jason Neil Melbon was the other end of the textbook “shoulder charge”. Picture: NSW Police.

Butcher told The Daily Telegraph he was alerted to the escapee after heard his neighbour’s grandson yell out: “Stop him, stop him”, following a break and enter at the home.

“I knocked him to the ground,” Mr Butcher said.

The former first-grader said he realised Melbon had a knife in his hand as he got up from the ground.

“(He) looked straight at me,” he said. “He ran off around the corner and broke into another person’s house.

“We followed him in my car. I can’t run at the moment. I’m off work with an injured knee. I spotted him taking off in another car. I got the number plate of the car and we called the police.

“He was caught by police shortly after.”

Blake Butcher played for South Sydney in the late 80s. Picture: Supplied

Blake’s son Nat Butcher (left) of the Roosters is tackled during the 2025 NRL Pre-Season Challenge match between Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights. Photo: Mark Metcalfe

Reflecting on his intervention on August 13, 2023, Mr Butcher, 55, a lift technician whose sons have followed in his rugby league footsteps, said it happened in a flash and he reacted instinctively, saying he was in the right place at the right time.

“I’m not brave,” he added.

Melbon is due to appear in court on June 20 after pleading guilty to a string of offences, including attempting to escape from lawful custody at Sydney Downing Centre on May 22.

According to a statement of agreed facts, Melbon was doing groundwork when he put a chair up against an internal fence at Long Bay jail at Matraville and jumped over, breaking his ankle upon landing and hobbling to Little Bay where he tried to break into several homes on August 13, 2023.

He broke into a house and stole the owner’s Hyundai.

Blake Butcher,with son Nat, says he is not brave but has lived in Malabar for more than 20 years and is protective of his neighbours. Picture: Monique Harmer

He burst into another home of a mother of one and struck her to the ground before tying her hands with power cords of her laptop and stealing her car. She locked herself into the bathroom and called triple-0.

Shortly after, he allegedly forced a mother-of-three, who was unpacking her groceries in her driveway, to get into her car and drive him across Sydney to Beverley Park where she opened the car door and fled, screaming for help.

Melbon tried to force other residents to hand over their car keys before he was eventually arrested by police.

He has admitted to multiple charges including two counts of aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence, taking and driving a conveyance without the owner’s consent, and two counts of taking and detaining a person with intent to obtain advantage.

He has pleaded guilty to one charge of assault with intent to rob while armed with an offensive weapon, one charge of breaking and entering at a house and stealing to the value of $60,000, and one charge of aggravated break and enter while knowing a person was there.

He would have been due for parole on December 11 last year but is now facing a potentially longer sentence.

Originally published as Roosters stars’ dad took down armed fugitive with ‘shoulder charge’