Jackson Travers: Bra Boy sentenced for Redfern attack
CCTV Footage has captured the moment a member of the notorious Maroubra surf gang unleashed a flurry of punches in a brutal attack on a stranger outside a Redfern pub. When police arrived, the jobless 21-year-old claimed he had been the victim.
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CCTV footage has revealed the moment a Bra Boy unleashed a flurry of punches outside a Sydney hotel after celebrating a big South Sydney Rabbitohs win.
Jackson Travers was convicted but escaped a custodial sentence at Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday for bashing Sateki Tuitavake in front of the Regent Hotel about midnight on September 20 last year.
The 21-year-old and his brother Ray were only months earlier acquitted of murdering homeless man Peter Hoffmann, found stabbed to death in his car on June 21, 2017 – a State of Origin night.
Unemployed Travers – referred to in police facts as a member of infamous Maroubra surf gang the Bra Boys – pleaded guilty in January to affray in relation to Mr Tuitavake’s assault.
Wearing a backwards baseball cap and untucked shirt, he drew glares in court on Wednesday for opening a bottle of Sprite while seated in the gallery.
The Eastlakes man was six vodka raspberry lemonades deep when he punched the 26-year-old in the face several times in a laneway separating the pub from Redfern police station.
Travers initially claimed to be the victim of an attack outside the Regent, telling police a man punched him in the face after he yelled “Up the Bunnies” in celebration of South Sydney’s finals series win over Manly.
However, CCTV footage of the 15-second melee told a different story and police charged him instead.
The footage played in court shows Travers standing outside the hotel when Mr Tuitavake, wearing a white shirt and carrying a large sports bag, leaves the premises and moves to cross the road at Regent St.
It appears to show aspiring motorcycle mechanic Travers say something to the victim, who was facing the road but then rounds to confront the 21-year-old.
Travers then releases a series of quick punches toward Mr Tuitavake’s face, who does not retaliate at first but approaches his attacker.
Footage shows Travers walk backwards but as the two come face-to-face again he jumps and throws more punches at the victim’s head, ducking and weaving around Mr Tuitavake who fights back.
A police van with lights and sirens on arrives at the scene seconds after the fight began, with both men dropping their fists. Travers fled on foot.
Legal Aid lawyer Elizabeth Bushby told Magistrate Jacqueline Trad her client had “basically been in custody since he was [a teenager]” spending just two months on bail between then and the night of the “very short” fight.
Ms Bushby said Travers’ time in jail, couple with a diagnosed anxiety disorder, had given birth to a “heightened” response to danger and made perceived physical threats “more real”.
“(The fight) wasn’t planned, it wasn’t organised,” Ms Bushby said.
Police prosecutor Zane Barren argued that matters of alcohol-related violence were particularly serious and called for a harsh sentence.
“It doesn’t need much more than one punch to have detrimental effects for a human person,” he said.
In sentencing Magistrate Trad, however, found the threshold for full time custody had not been crossed despite conceding the “flurry of punches and violence” resulting from little provocation.
She ordered Travers submit to a three-year community corrections order, complete the Equips anger management plan and follow any medical treatment plans required.