Melbourne Rebels, Elimi Uluikadavu: Former Super Rubgy hopeful avoids jail over street bashing
A young rugby union player who broke a man’s jaw and collarbone in a brutal, drunken beating outside a nightclub, has narrowly avoided spending time in jail.
Canberra Star
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Former Super Rugby hopeful Elimi Uluikadavu will not serve any actual jail time and will perform just 100 hours of community work over the next year as punishment for the thuggish bashing he meted after being turfed from a Canberra nightclub.
Uluikadavu, 22, faced the ACT Supreme Court on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm.
In a brief sentencing hearing, Chief Justice Helen Murrell confirmed she would sentence the former Melbourne Rebels hopeful to a 13 month intensive corrections order, with 100 hours of community service. Uluikadavu, originally from Fiji, came to Australian in 2017 to play for the Rebels but had his career cut short by injury.
He is now a Canberra tradie.
Uluikadavu was booted from Canberra’s Shorty’s nightclub in February 2019 following a dispute about a woman.
Security guards split the men up, and sent them out seperate entrances in the hope each would head off in different directions.
But outside, Uluikadavu sought the man out, cornered him and belted him around the head, breaking his jaw and collarbone.
In the moments before Uluikadavu threw the punches, the victim, Ivan Pranjic, held his hand out and said “I don’t want a fight”.
The victim’s broken bones had to be screwed and plated together.
The attack was captured on a grainy police security camera.
Uluikadavu, giving evidence at a previous hearing, said he became “lost” when his sporting career ended, began drinking heavily and was “acting on raw emotion” on the night.
He has since cut back on his drinking.
He says he is normally the “quiet bubbly type” who tries to make people laugh.
Chief Justice Murrell has said it is unlikely Uluikadavu would get in trouble with the law again.
Prosecutors had been pushing for a harsher sentence, saying other would-be street brawlers need to be sent a message.
It was only luck that the victim didn’t suffer more serious injuries when he fell unconscious onto the concrete footpath on Bunda St after being punched, prosecutor Marcus Dyason said.