Queensland’s community and professional sports stars who fronted court
We admire their physical prowess and revel in their on field success but some of Qld’s popular athletes had to answer for their offending at court. SEE THE LIST.
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Whether mega star NRL player or lauded community rugby star still remembered for their beautiful game play, sports identities command special status in the community but it does not inoculate them from criminal and traffic offending.
And while Australia punches well above its weight during the Tokyo Olympics, already whispers of offensive and destructive behaviour follow our athletes home.
Below we look at some of our community and professional sports stars who got a red card at court.
CAMERON GRANT BLEWITT
The former Rockhampton Grammar School student, who was named the private school’s senior athlete of the year, was using performance enhancing drugs to help him excel in sports and also supplied the dangerous drugs to others, a court heard in June.
Cameron Grant Blewitt, 23, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on June 15 to nine counts of supplying a dangerous drug, one count of possessing a thing used in connection with supplying a dangerous drug, and two counts each of possessing a dangerous drug and unlawful possession of restricted drugs.
Crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke said the offending related to nine dangerous drug supplies that occurred in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
Ms O’Rourke said police raided Blewitt’s house on April 25, 2020, and found, in addition to the phone that had been used for the supplies, 9g of different steroids, a small quantity of MDMA and restricted drugs.
Barrister Jordan Ahlstrand said his client attended The Rockhampton Grammar School and graduated in 2016. He was aged 18 in Year 12.
Blewitt was sentenced to prison for 12 months, suspended for two years, and fined $800 with criminal convictions recorded.
JOEL BENJAMIN ANDERSEN
It was the final straw for professional bowls player Joel Benjamin Andersen when the young sportsman was jailed for a string of offences.
The one-time protege and Club Kawana bowls club player — who is paid $250 to play professional games — pleaded guilty to 10 charges in Caboolture Magistrates Court.
Andersen, 24, pleaded guilty to assaulting and obstructing police in a public place while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance, causing a public nuisance in a licensed premises, failing to leave a licensed premises, driving without a licence, evading police and four counts of wilful damage of police property.
Character references were handed up on behalf of Andersen, who along with sister Kiani were once some of the country’s most promising young bowls players.
However a lengthy criminal history worked against a remorseful Andersen who, the court heard, had been on both a suspended jail term and parole at the time of his offending and had recently overcome drug addiction.
He was given a head sentence of 12 months’ jail for disqualified driving, along with an array of other prison terms including 50 days’ jail for evading police.
He was also fined $500 for failing to leave a licensed premises and disqualified from driving for 30 months.
At the time Andersen was given an April 4 parole release date.
JARRYD HAYNE
In May the sporting world watched in shock as Hayne’s stunning fall from grace was completed when it was revealed he would not see the outside world until January 2025.
Tempers frayed and tears were shed as the disgraced former NRL star and convicted rapist was jailed for the sexual assault of a young woman inside her Newcastle home.
Inside courtroom 6.1 of the Newcastle Court House, Hayne continued to profess his innocence however his victim stood just metres from him, detailing how the assault had devastated every aspect of her life.
District Court Judge Helen Syme sentenced Hayne to a maximum of five years and nine months behind bars, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.
Hayne, 33, was found guilty by a jury in March of the sexual assault of the then 26-year-old woman at her Fletcher home on Newcastle’s outskirts in September 2018.
Hayne was found guilty of performing oral and digital sex without her consent on NRL grand final night in 2018.
The woman suffered two lacerations and bled profusely after the assault.
Hayne maintained that he was innocent of the charges throughout proceedings and indicated he would appeal the sentence.
ANTHONY FOWLER
Fallen NRL star Anthony “Chook’’ Fowler, 44, officially became a jailed crook after his conviction and District Court sentence for the robbery of the Cecil Hotel in Goodna.
Previous to his March 20, 2018 sentencing, Fowler had pleaded guilty to entering a premises with intent in Goodna on March 19, 2015; robbery in company; and serious assault with intent to commit a crime.
More than $100,000 was the expected haul but because a safe combination had been changed the robbery realised $20,000 cash.
The court heard Fowler had become a trusted employee at the hotel.
Its owner and robbery victim Peter Falvey attended the sentencing and stared at him seated in the dock.
The court heard it was a premeditated and planned robbery that targeted and threatened a hotel worker who was manhandled, a replica pistol pressed to his head.
Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said Fowler was the mastermind behind the robbery and knew the morning routine of cleaner Darren Moloney who would arrive before 6am.
Two co-offenders assisted Fowler with the robbery.
Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Fowler to four years and four months jail for the robbery in company charge, and two-and-a-half years jail for the other two charges – served concurrently.
He was ordered to serve the four months of a previously suspended sentence – cumulative.
Fowler was eligible to begin his application for parole from August 10, 2019.
THESE SPORTS STARS DID NOT RECEIVE A CRIMINAL CONVICTION:
IZAIA JAY ALI PERESE
The rising NRL star caught supplying drugs walked free from a Brisbane court in March last year after avoiding conviction.
Former Brisbane Bronco Izaia Jay Ali Perese, 22, pleaded guilty to supplying a dangerous drug at Albion Creek September, 2019.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing $5,600 obtained from the supply of drugs and possessing the painkiller Tramadol when police searched his Albion Creek home.
Brisbane’s District Court heard Perese agreed to obtain significant amounts of cocaine and MDMA from a person who was the target of a police drug sting.
Justice John Allen said subsequent conversations indicated Perese had supplied at least one of those drugs.
“The man said he could supply Perese with 3.5 grams of cocaine for $1000 and two grams of MDMA for $500,” Justice Allen said.
Perese also agreed to receive a $10,000 cash payment, of which $5600 was found by police, on behalf of the drug dealer.
Taking into account his very early plea of guilty and remorse, Justice Allen sentenced him to an 18-month supervision order and 100 hours of community service. No conviction was recorded.
JOE OFAHENGAUE
The former Brisbane Broncos and now Wests Tigers forward Joe Ofahengaue last year told a court he was “extremely embarrassed and extremely remorseful” after he was charged for sleeping in his car while drunk.
The football player faced Ipswich Magistrates Court in February when he pleaded guilty to being in control of a vehicle while under the influence.
Defence lawyer Dave Garratt said Ofahengaue had been at a house party celebrating a friend’s one-year anniversary of being free from leukaemia when he went to his car to retrieve a speaker and fell asleep.
“This is something that’s quite close to home for Mr Ofahengaue as his partner is now in remission and has been for the last year from breast cancer so he’s quite supportive of the high school friend of theirs,” Mr Garratt said.
“He had a number of drinks, went to his car to retrieve a speaker, he simply sat in his car and fell asleep for a number of hours and then police arrived.
“He had no intention of driving. He simply started the car for the aircon, being a hot summer’s night.
“He had no idea that he was committing an offence.”
The football player was fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for the minimum term of three months and no conviction was recorded.
KALUM JAI GULLIVER-BROWN
A young Brisbane ex-private schoolboy “coward punched” a man on a date with his female friend at a popular nightclub before savagely bashing him with no provocation, a court heard in May.
Lota man Kalum Jai Gulliver-Brown, 21, pleaded guilty in Wynnum Magistrates Court to a single charge of assault occasioning bodily harm in a public place while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance.
The court heard the assault occurred at Fridays nightclub in Brisbane CBD in the early hours of November 22 last year.
The victim was on a date with a friend of Gulliver-Brown and was known socially to the defendant and had entered the nightclub about midnight, the same time as Gulliver-Brown and his friends.
About 2.30am in the beer garden, the victim felt a “sudden impact to the right side of his face and instant pain to his right eye”, police prosecutor Senior Constable Andy Ross told the court.
The victim “lost control of his body and fell over,” at which point Gulliver-Brown administered two more blows to his face, leaving him semiconscious.
Gulliver-Brown was ordered to perform 40 hours’ community service and pay the victim $600 compensation.
No conviction was recorded.
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