Jese Smith-Shields, Bailey Loughhead accused of attack at Spilt Milk music festival
Two school mates are accused of breaking a man’s jaw, as part of a dispute over a girl, at a popular music festival in Canberra.
Canberra Star
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Two rugby league mates — one of whom was dressed “like a pirate on holidays” — have pleaded not guilty to perpetrating a vicious attack at a music festival, which left their alleged victim with a broken jaw.
Jese Smith-Shields, 22, is accused of breaking the jaw of Nick Lawrence while former school mate Bayley Loughhead, also 22, allegedly held him in a headlock.
Smith-Shields is the older brother of Canberra Raiders centre Harley Smith-Shields, who is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Smith-Shields and Loughhead have both pleaded not guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, and not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Crown Prosecutor Trent Hickey told the ACT Supreme Court the allegation stems from the Spilt Milk music festival in Canberra in November 2018, when there was a rumour doing the rounds that Mr Lawrence has slept with Smith-Shields’s girlfriend, a rumour Mr Lawrence denied.
Mr Hickey said Mr Lawrence saw his two alleged attackers at the festival, and recognised them from school and from playing footy against them.
As the duo approached Mr Lawrence and it became clear there was bad blood, Mr Lawrence said something like “I didn’t go near her”, Mr Hickey said.
Mr Lawrence was grabbed in a headlock and hit repeatedly in the face until he fell unconscious, Mr Hickey said.
Mr Lawrence is expected to tell the jury his last memory of the day is of trying to defend himself.
The jury would be shown a message from Smith-Shields saying “that’s the last thing I wanted to happen and I feel horrible for it”.
Barrister Beth Morrisroe, for Smith-Shields, said her client was at the music festival “with the intention of having a fun time”.
She said the incident began when Mr Lawrence spotted her client across a crowd of people, and that Smith-Shields had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with him.
She said the woman, who was with Mr Lawrence said something like “can we not fight, I want to have a good day”.
Ms Morrisroe said the case would come down to the jury’s assessment of “who was there, what happened, who did what”.
Barrister Jack Pappas, for Loughhead, said the jury might conclude the allegations against his client is “fanciful” and that his client might have been trying to “stop a melee”.
He said his client was at the music festival “dressed like a pirate on holidays” and had “no ill will towards Mr Lawrence”.
The trial, before Justice John Burns and a jury, continues.