Alleged DV live-streamer in NSW court

A gamer who allegedly livestreamed the assault of his pregnant partner while he was playing Fortnite has “a number of convictions for matters involving violence”, court documents reveal.

• Gamer accused of assaulting partner
• Fortnite gamer in allegedly airs himself assaulting partner

A gamer who allegedly livestreamed the assault of his pregnant partner while playing Fortnite has “a number of convictions for matters involving violence”, court documents reveal.

Luke Munday, 26, fronted Camden Local Court today wearing a pink chequered shirt and grey pants to face the charge of common assault after the video went viral and was shared across the world, sparking public debate about the connection between gaming and violence.

Luke Munday arrives at Camden court. Picture: John Grainger

It allegedly showed the Oran Park Telstra engineer getting into a verbal fight with his pregnant 21-year-old defacto partner on Sunday, before a noise that sounds like a slap rings out in the video of him streaming himself playing the game Fortnite on online platform Twitch

Court documents — which outline why he was granted police bail before his first court appearance- reveal that Munday was charged on two previous occasions in 2011 for malicious damage and common assault.

Luke Munday with his lawyer. Picture: John Grainger

“Both of which are not domestic related,” they state.

“The accused has a number of convictions / findings of guilt for matters involving violence,” the police bail documents say.

The documents say that he had showed “remorse” and had made “admissions”.

“The accused showed remorse for his actions during the interview stating that he was aware that his actions were inappropriate and that he should not have done what he did,” they state.

“The defendant did make admissions to the offence. There are numerous independent witnesses to the offence as a portion of the incident was live streamed.”

The documents state that Munday was the sole provider for his family, which includes two children under three years old, earning $1070 a week.

It said he was employed full time as a network engineer for Telstra.

Police have taken out an interim apprehended violence order on behalf of his partner after the alleged assault between 8.30pm and 8.45pm.

Today Munday’s lawyer Steven Mercael asked that one of the AVO conditions be removed.

He said that there was a detailed letter explaining why, and that Munday’s partner did not oppose this happening.

However the court heard the prosecution did due to the nature of the alleged offence and it will remain in place until his matter is next heard on January 10.

The court heard that Munday no longer resided at the family home where the assault allegedly occurred but he needed to retrieve his belongings.

Magistrate Ian Cheetham said that he should liaise with a domestic violence liaison to sort this out.

Under Munday’s bail conditions he is not allowed to go within 100 metres of his defacto partner or their family home in Oran Park.

He is also not to stalk, harass, or intimidate her.

Mr Mercael asked for the matter be adjourned to January 10 for his client to receive “adequate legal advice”. He asked his client be excused on the next occasion.

When asked why he said: “There is a lot of attention on this case and on both the alleged victim and my client.”

Munday declined to comment outside court.

Munday, a Telstra engineer, said he had not watched the footage

But speaking for the first time on Tuesday, he said had not watched the footage.

“You’re all judging the video, you don’t see what happens, you haven’t read the police report, you don’t actually know what happened off camera,” Munday said at his grandparents’ house.

“The court will decide what happens, they have the evidence, they have her statement and they have my statement, and they match. There’s no issue there.”

When asked if he was sorry for what allegedly happened, Munday said: “Yeah, we’re dealing with that between each other, that’s between us, not anyone else.”

Telstra has confirmed it has suspended Munday while the investigation continues.