Terrigal: Tom Starling escapes conviction over Mumbo Jumbos incident

NRL hooker Tom Starling was left with PTSD after allegedly being assaulted by police during a brawl, which saw him avoid penalty for threatening a bouncer months later, a court has heard.

Canberra Raiders playmaker Tom Starling has avoided a conviction for intimidating a bouncer after he and his brothers were refused entry to a Central Coast nightclub.

The 24-year-old and his younger brother Josh Starling, 21, faced Gosford Local Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to one count each of intimidating a security guard at Mumbo Jumbos at Terrigal in October 2021.

Represented by leading Central Coast criminal lawyer Samar Singh-Panwar, Tom applied to have his charge dealt with under mental health provisions.

Mr Singh-Panwar told the court the brothers had been involved in an incident at another Central Coast venue — Shady Palms at Kincumber — 10 months earlier in which Tom had allegedly been assaulted by police resulting in him developing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

CCTV vision of that incident was played to the court.

CCTV of the Shady Palms incident was played in court on Thursday.

He said a psychological report, tendered to court, established Tom’s PTSD “impaired his behaviour” when he threatened the Mumbo Jumbos bouncer, who was the same security guard present during the incident at Shady Palms.

“These matters are clearly related to those events at Shady Palms in October 2020,” Mr Singh-Panwar said.

Exterior photos of Shady Palms at Kincumber on the Central Coast where NRL footballer Tom Starling was allegedly assaulted by police.

An agreed set of police facts states the Canberra Raiders hooker and his brothers Josh and Jackson, 26, were refused entry to Terrigal night spot Mumbo Jumbos on October 16, 2021, because Covid restrictions meant the “bar was full”.

The facts state the victim, security guard Khan Morris, was the owner of BDYTEK Pty Ltd which did security for Mumbo Jumbos and Kincumber eatery Shady Palms.

The court heard 10 months earlier on December 5 2020 the three brothers had been involved in a wild brawl with police at Shady Palms and Mr Morris was on security at the time.

The brothers pleaded not guilty to several charges including affray, assault, hindering and resisting police and after a 13-day hearing in the Downing Centre Local Court last year, Magistrate Daniel Covington found the brawl was sparked when Mr Morris called the brothers’ mother a “slut”.

On Thursday the court heard Magistrate Covington had found Tom was assaulted by police with Josh and Jackson acting in self-defence of their brother, with all of Tom and Jackson’s charges withdrawn and dismissed.

Magistrate Covington meanwhile found Josh was provoked by the victim, however he was guilty of common assault by pushing the victim’s chest and guilty of resisting police.

Josh Starling arrives at Downing C Local Court for the hearing in Decmeber. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Josh was sentenced to a conditional release order for 18 months but the court heard he has since appealed these convictions and remains before Gosford District Court.

Since the hearing, Mr Morris has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the incident at Shady Palms and remains before the Local Court.

In October last year Tom and Josh pleaded guilty to one count each of intimidating Mr Khan after they were refused entry to Mumbo Jumbos.

The facts in that matter state Mr Morris was standing on the first floor of the cocktail bar after the brothers were refused entry when he saw Tom and Josh on the street across the road with a group of people.

“Tom Starling and Josh Starling yelled abuse at the victim,” the facts stated.

“Witnesses heard members of the group yell ‘f**k you Khan’. Both offenders used their hands in a ‘come here’ gesture motion.”

Tom’s girlfriend Chelsea Anne Balzan, 21, pointed to the victim and ran her finger across her throat.

The court heard she had previously pleaded guilty to intimidation and was sentenced to a conditional release order for 10 months.

Chelsea Balzan - the girlfriend of Canberra Raiders star Tom Starling - leaving court after she was given a conditional release order.

Meanwhile, Tom’s older brother Jackson has pleaded not guilty to behaving in offensive manner in public and two counts of resist or hinder police officer in the execution of duty over his alleged involvement in the Mumbo Jumbos incident. He will face a hearing in July on those charges.

Prosecutor Senior Sergeant Amin Assaad said in light of the evidence heard in the previous hearing police were not seeking a conviction against either Tom or Josh.

Magistrate Jennifer Price found Josh guilty of intimidation but did not record a conviction and instead placed him on a conditional release order — essentially a good behaviour bond — for two years.

She upheld the mental health application in relation to Tom’s matter and dismissed the charge against him, instead ordering he adhere to a mental health plan.

Magistrate Price said she was satisfied Tom met the legal requirements under the mental health legislation and the CCTV from the Shady Palms incident showed he was subject to a “significant degree of quite brutal violence while he was in a powerless position” being held back by other people.

Tom Starling develoed PTSD after the Shady Palms incident, the court heard. Picture: social media.

Meanwhile, on the same day at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, Tom Starling was denied court costs from NSW Police after being cleared in February over the Shady Palms incident.

On Thursday, Magistrate Covington found against awarding costs to Tom because he was “not satisfied the prosecution investigation was conducted improperly or unreasonably”.

Magistrate Covington said the protracted hearing, which included video footage of the incident that left Tom with a bloody face, was “a multifaceted case” and “not a simple decision”.

“I reject the submission that prosecution was doomed to fail,” he said.

“It (the matter) was for the court to determine, it was not an unreasonable investigation and there is no basis for awarding costs.”