Matthew Kevin Mackay walks free but cops 12 month ban from party precinct
A man busted with steroids and fantasy has copped a year ban from Brisbane’s party precinct after a wild brawl in Fortitude Valley involving former Bandidos chapter president George Bejat.
Police & Courts
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A man has copped a year ban from Brisbane’s party precinct after a wild brawl in Fortitude Valley involving former Bandidos chapter president George Bejat.
Matthew Kevin Mackay, Bejat and another man were about to leave in a taxi when they began fighting with a reveller outside the Valley’s Mr Mista nightclub about 3am on February 23.
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Footage played in court today showed Bejat holding the man in a headlock before the man is knocked out by a third co-accused.
Mackay can then be seen punching the man as he lie unconscious on the road.
Mackay, 31, today pleaded guilty to affray relating to the Fortitude Valley incident and drug offences including possessing steroids and the party drug fantasy.
Police prosecutor Sgt Duncan Erskine said Mackay had a history of violence in public.
He submitted imprisonment was appropriate for the affray and drug charges.
“Here you have someone that’s using steroids, he’s a big fellow and he’s out in public participating in fights with his mates,” Sgt Erskine said.
He also applied for a 12 month banning order from safe night precincts.
Mackay’s lawyer Nick Dore, from Fisher Dore Lawyers, said the fight was instigated by the man who was knocked out, not his client’s group.
Mr Dore said the man, believed to be an ex-footballer, approached his client’s taxi and said words to the effect “do you want to have a go”.
“These gentlemen were in a cab leaving when the fight commenced at the agitation of some other person,” he said.
“Yes, they could have stayed in the cab, but they didn’t.”
Mr Dore said Mackay’s last conviction for violence was in 2012.
Mackay had been working in the timber industry but was laid off due to COVID.
Mr Dore said his client had moved from the city to be a family man in the suburbs.
Magistrate Judith Daley categorised Mackay’s involvement in the Valley affray as more serious than Bejat’s.
She sentenced Mackay to four months prison wholly suspended and banned him from the Valley, Brisbane City and West End from 8pm and 6am for a year.