Emily Clifford wins jail reprieve after brawl outside Wollongong club Mr Crown

A single mother has been labelled a thug for her role in a ‘violent and appalling’ free-for-all with her friend and cousin outside a nightclub. She plans to fight the jail sentence handed down.

Illawarra woman Emily Clifford was sentenced on Tuesday for affray. Picture: Facebook

A single mother admonished as a “intoxicated thug” has been granted a reprieve after she was chucked in jail for a “violent and appalling act” outside a popular Wollongong nightclub.

Emily Clifford, 25, was sentenced to 11 months behind bars with a non-parole period of six months for affray when she faced Magistrate Roger Prowse in Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday.

Clifford requested for the decision to be appealed in Wollongong District Court and applied for bail ahead of that appeal.

Mr Prowse denied the application because “there is a low likelihood of a successful appeal and hence bail is therefore denied”.

However, on Friday, Judge Andrew Haesler granted Clifford bail after a hearing in the higher court ahead of a sentence appeal in March, next year.

CCTV of Emily Clifford during the incident. Picture: Wollongong Police District

Documents tendered in court said Clifford was involved in a brawl shortly after 1am on Saturday, November 27, last year outside the city’s Mr Crown nightclub.

Clifford, who was wearing a beige top and dark pants, left the venue with her friend Shiakiah Walker and her cousin Clinton Clifford, with the trio engaging in a verbal altercation with another group.

Emily Clifford approached an unknown male before pushing him in the chest and passing a set of car keys to her cousin before he ran away from the scene.

Illawarra woman Emily Clifford sentenced to 11 months jail for affray outside Mr Crown nightclub in Wollongong CBD in December 2021. Picture: Facebook

Walker punched the same man in the head before he pushed her away which led Clifford to also strike the man with her fist.

The court documents said both women punched and kicked the man as he bent over and covered his head as “other parties” intervened in an attempt to stop the melee.

The court heard her cousin ran back to the fight, armed with a baseball bat which he used to strike another man in the brawl.

Security eventually broke up the altercation with Clifford and Walker fleeing the scene in a vehicle parked behind the Harp Hotel nearby.

Emily Clifford will appeal the sentence in Wollongong District Court in December.

In court on Tuesday, Clifford’s lawyer Caitlin Drabble submitted her client would “benefit from supervision” imposed through an intensive corrections order.

Mr Prowse was not of the same opinion, labelling supervision as a “myth” and “marketing put on a gullible public” due to corrective services being “too under-resourced and overworked” to provide proper supervision.

“It‘s not going to matter because Ms Clifford is going in,” Mr Prowse said before sentencing the Shellharbour woman to 11 months behind bars with a non-parole period of six months.

He labelled her an “intoxicated thug” for her “violent and appalling act”.

Mr Prowse also took aim at Clifford’s character references who indicated the event was “out of character” and seemed under the belief she was “acting in self-defence”.

“You have been telling lies to your referees,” he said.

“You have told them this was self-defence, but you have pleaded guilty on the other hand … You can‘t have two bob each way on a one-horse race.

“There is no aspect of self-defence at all, in any circumstance, it’s unbridled aggression.

“Your friend of 11 years has said ‘to my knowledge it’s not in her character’, she doesn’t know you very well.”

Walker, who has also pleaded guilty to affray, will be sentenced for her role later this year while Clinton Clifford was sentenced earlier this year to 18 months jail with a non-parole period of nine months.

However, he is appealing the sentence in Wollongong District Court and was granted bail until the judgment later this month.