Dragons star Junior Amone free to travel outside NSW ahead of court hearing
A magistrate has permitted NRL young gun Junior Amone to travel outside NSW for “the purposes of his employment” with the 20-year-old and his co-accused father set to fight charges related to an alleged 2022 hammer attack.
Illawarra Star
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St George Illawarra Dragons ace Junior Amone has been allowed to travel interstate despite allegations he was the “main aggressor” in a violent, rooftop hammer attack.
The 20-year-old NRL star faced Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday alongside his co-accused father, Talatau Amone, with Magistrate Michael O’Brien easing Junior’s bail conditions three days before the Dragons face the Broncos.
On Tuesday, Junior was named in the extended reserves for the match to be played at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
Junior is charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, destroying or damaging property, intimidation and a fresh charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Talatau is charged with destroying or damaging property, entering a building or land with the intent to commit an indictable offence, affray, two counts of intimidation as well as assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The father and son have both pleaded not guilty to the charges with a hearing date set for August.
Documents tendered in court during Junior’s first court appearance in December stated police will allege the incident was sparked by a dispute over tradies Dean West and Jai King legally parking their vehicles on a nature strip in November last year.
Police allege Talatau, Junior – who was allegedly holding a hammer – and the third man approached Mr King’s Nissan Navara and climbed onto the car and repeatedly jumped on its roof, causing significant damage.
Mr King contacted triple-0 as the trio of men allegedly climbed onto the roof and began threatening the two tradies.
The documents indicated Junior allegedly swung the hammer towards Mr King, before chasing after him and ultimately causing him to fall off the two-storey building.
Police will allege Junior was overheard telling his two co-accused “get the f--king c--t” as Mr King lay on the ground.
Mr King hid in a nearby house and contacted emergency services again.
After being taken to hospital for treatment, Mr King allegedly told police Junior was the “main aggressor” during the incident.
In court on Wednesday, the Amone‘s lawyer Elias Tabchouri tendered a letter from Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb in an effort to have Junior’s bail condition eased to allow him to travel overseas and interstate for the purpose of playing rugby league.
Mr Tabchouri submitted Junior was not a flight risk given he has a $100,000 surety hanging over his head, adding he would be “chaperoned” by one of the Dragons‘ six-player leadership group when travelling.
“He has no reason to flee because his whole family is here,” Mr Tabchouri said.
“He’s not going to go to Melbourne to take on the Storm and take a slow boat to China. Why would he just play home games, that makes no sense?
“This is his livelihood. This isn’t a boys’ trip to the country to play some tournament, this is a professional rugby league player.”
Police prosecutor Sergeant Anna Comer opposed the application, telling the court Junior’s bail conditions were being “slowly chipped away”, pointing to his curfew being reworked a fortnight ago to allow him to go to training.
“The facts in this are alarming, it’s a completely unprovoked attack,” Sgt Comer said.
Sgt Comer said the evidence against Junior had become “stronger” with police allegedly finding two finger prints matching his on the victim’s vehicle as well as CCTV footage from Sydney Airport and Services NSW on the same day where he was wearing identical clothing.
Magistrate O’Brien concluded “no bail condition is entirely risk free” and made the variation that Junior not enter an international point of departure except for travel with the Dragons.
Junior is required to live at his Vermont Rd, Warrawong, home and report to Lake Illawarra Police every Wednesday, except when travelling with the Dragons and he is obligated to tell police when he intends to travel.
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