ACT Magistrates Court gives Davina Duthie good behaviour order for affray

A man’s attempt to break up an altercation outside a nightclub ended with him being booted in the back and struck in the face.

Davina Duthie (right) arrives at the ACT Magistrates Court with a supporter (left) on Wednesday. Picture: Blake Foden

A good Samaritan’s “night on the town” came to a sour end when he tried to break up an altercation, only to be kicked in the back and hit in the face.

On Wednesday, his assailant, Davina Danielle Eleanor Duthie, promised a magistrate she had “calmed down now” and there would be no repeat of the violent incident.

Duthie, 25, made the pledge while representing herself at an ACT Magistrates Court sentencing, which ended with the imposition of a 12-month good behaviour order.

Court documents show an intoxicated Duthie became violent with her then-partner outside Fiction nightclub about 1.50am on December 9, 2023.

Two bystanders tried to verbally intervene out of fear for the safety of Duthie’s then-partner, who is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Davina Duthie tries to shield her face outside court ahead of her sentencing. Picture: Blake Foden

Duthie ensured their good deed did not go unpunished, with agreed facts stating she aggressively turned on the two men.

Without warning, she kicked one of them in the lower back after he had turned away.

Her then-partner tried to move her away from the good Samaritans, but she broke free from his grip and walked back towards the man she had just kicked.

Duthie struck him in the face this time, using enough force his head was knocked backwards.

Police communications staff saw the incident while conducting live monitoring of CCTV cameras in Canberra’s city centre.

They alerted officers, who arrested Duthie and subsequently granted her police bail.

The ACT Magistrates Court. Picture: Sam Turner

Duthie denied when arrested that she had been involved in an altercation, but she indicated a guilty plea to an affray charge the first time her case was before the court.

She formally entered that plea on Wednesday, when she told magistrate Jane Campbell “it won’t happen again”.

“I know you probably hear that a lot,” Duthie, a bartender from the Canberra suburb of Flynn, said.

“It’s probably a stupid thing to say at this point.”

The court heard Duthie had been in trouble with the law before, most recently receiving a 12-month good behaviour order in 2020 for an offence of obstructing police.

She said the birth of her now three-year-old daughter at the end of that year had helped her stay out of trouble other than at the time of the affray, which she described as out of character.

A prosecutor told Ms Campbell the offence fell short of the threshold for a jail term.

Ms Campbell agreed as she imposed the good behaviour order and a criminal conviction, telling Duthie that “the sentence must impress upon you that you can’t behave in this way anymore”.

“That’s not appropriate behaviour to model to your child,” the magistrate told Duthie.

While there was no victim impact statement before the court, Ms Campbell said she could infer that the man attacked by Duthie would have suffered some physical pain.

She noted that bystanders often refrained from intervening in altercations for fear of exactly what transpired in this case.

“He’s gone out for a night on the town and has ended up being assaulted by you,” Ms Campbell told Duthie.