Jese Smith-Shields, 22, found guilty of Canberra music festival assault
Jese Smith-Shields, the older brother of rising NRL star Harley Smith-Shields, has been found guilty of belting a rumoured love rival in the face at a music festival in 2018
Canberra Star
Don't miss out on the headlines from Canberra Star. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- ‘Shameless’: Alleged Canberra public pool flasher refused bail
- How a ‘desperate’ was busted in $140m cocaine syndicate
- Canberra life coach faces jail over vile online crimes
The older brother of a rising Canberra Raiders star has been found guilty of assaulting a rumoured love rival by belting him in the face at a music festival in November 2018.
An ACT Supreme Court jury on Wednesday found Jese Smith-Shields, 22, guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Smith-Shields is the older brother of second string Canberra Raider’s centre Harley Smith-Shields.
A seven- day trial of Jese Smith-Shields heard he attacked a former school mate, Nick Lawrence, by hitting him in the face at the Spilt Milk music festival in Canberra in November 2018.
Smith-Shields began crying after the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdict against him.
He was cleared of a more serious charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, while his co-accused, Bayley Loughhead, was cleared of both charges and walked from court a free man.
The verdict means the jury rejected Smith-Shields’s argument he threw a punch in self defence.
However, the jury doubted whether Smith-Shields was reckless about whether the punch he landed might end up causing serious injury to his victim, Nick Lawrence.
Mr Lawrence was left with a badly broken jaw, which needed to be fixed with surgery.
Smith-Shield’s now faces a maximum potential jail term of five years.
The trial — attended by large contingents of both defendant’s families — heard there had been rumours circulating about Mr Lawrence sleeping with Smith-Shield’s girlfriend, who was referred to in court only by her first name, Charlotte.
Mr Lawrence denied the rumours, but Smith-Shields appeared determined to want to confront his rumoured love rival.
Smith-Shields at trial denied he was responsible for the fight, and instead tried to portray Mr Lawrence as the aggressor.
In an defence largely rejected by the jury, Smith-Shields argued was at the festival “with the intention of having a fun time”.
Smith-Shields sent a ticket to a hospitalised Mr Lawrence saying: “that’s the last thing I wanted to happen and I feel horrible for it
Smith-Shield’s sentencing proceedings begin next month.