Umina Beach: NRL hopeful Jessi O’Neill sentenced for breaking another man’s jaw in a fight

An aspiring rugby league player, of “below average” intelligence, has been sentenced for punching and tackling another man to the ground, leaving him with a broken jaw, a court has heard.

Aspiring rugby league player Jessi O'Neill, 19, of Umina Beach, leaving Gosford Local Court where he was sentenced for breaking another young man's jaw in a fight. Picture: NewsLocal

A young Indigenous rugby league player has been ordered off the booze for six months after being sentenced for breaking another man’s jaw in a tackle.

Jessi O’Neill, 19, of Umina Beach, faced Gosford Local Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The court heard the victim and some friends had been on a “fridge-to-fridge” schoolies celebration and was walking along the road on December 2, 2021, when O’Neill approached him from behind.

The court heard O’Neill was with several of his mates when he punched the victim in the face before tackling him to the ground where the victim hit his head and suffered a fractured jaw.

Police had been patrolling nearby and were “flagged down” finding the victim on the ground in significant pain.

The court heard O'Neill, of Umina Beach, was training to pursue a professional rugby league career. Picture: Facebook

O’Neill’s solicitor David Kelly told the court his client was working as a concreting labourer at the time and wasn’t involved in the schoolies celebrations.

He said O’Neill had gone to a party but was waiting outside a house for his friends when he was assaulted.

O’Neill’s solicitor told the court his client thought the victim had assaulted him earlier in the evening. Picture: NewsLocal

Mr Kelly said O’Neill later saw the victim and thought he had been the one who had assaulted him earlier.

He said since the incident O’Neill had been seeing a counsellor for anger management, was in a supportive relationship and was now working as a landscaper while he trained to pursue a professional rugby league career.

Mr Kelly said O’Neill was an Indigenous young man who had overcome a disadvantaged childhood beset by one tragedy after another including his mother’s brain injury, his father’s premature death and his brother being diagnosed with cancer.

Magistrate Jennifer Price said O’Neill was aged 18 and two months at the time of the incident and accepted that “numerous tragedies” had occurred in his young life.

Magistrate Price said O’Neill had been assessed as having “below average” intellectual abilities but did not quite meet the definition of having a cognitive disability.

She said his mental “challenges”, combined with his immaturity and the likelihood he was also affected by alcohol at the time was a recipe for disaster.

“The prevalence of drunken violence is a blight on the community,” Magistrate Price said.

She convicted O’Neill of both charges and sentenced him to community corrections orders for a total of two years along with 75 hours of community service work.

One of the conditions of his bond is that he abstain from alcohol and illicit drugs for six months.