Luka Kenjalo: Northern beaches foreman assault, resist police
A charitable construction worker kicked a cop and repeatedly told him to “suck my d**k” after being refused entry to a strip club on a buck’s night of shame.
Manly
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A strapping northern beaches construction worker who kicked a police officer after being denied entry into a strip club has narrowly escaped a criminal conviction.
A boozed up Luka Kenjalo, a two-time employee of the year for Structure Australia, had been celebrating a mate’s buck’s night in Potts Point when police came across him and two pals attempting to aggressively charm their way into a strip club.
The group, who police had seen earlier “swearing and shouting for no apparent reason”, were arguing with security guards about 2:30am claiming they had lost a mobile phone inside the venue.
When police officers intervened they were shouted and sworn at, with court documents describing Kenjalo as slurring his words and stinking of alcohol.
Police tried to issue a move-on direction and asked for the 29-year-old’s name, he said “suck my d**k”.
When asked for his name a second time, Kenjalo repeated “suck my d**k”. When warned he would be arrested if he didn’t reveal his name, he said “suck my d**k”.
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The site foreman thrashed around and yelled “shut the f**k up” as he was arrested and taken to the ground, where he unleashed two shin kicks at a police officer before being hit with one second of capsicum spray to the face.
At Downing Centre Local Court on Monday, Magistrate Michael Antrum heard the Collaroy Plateau man had a history of charitable acts including restoring the roof at his local church with his lawyer saying “alcohol changed who he was”.
In a letter to the court, Kenjalo wrote “waking up in Kings Cross police station was the lowest point in my life, quickly trumped by the moment I told my family when I got home”.
The court heard Kenjalo’s dad still couldn’t believe his son’s actions and was ashamed, with character references tendered by his employer and parish priest Father Sasha Radoicic.
Magistrate Antrum labelled the northern beaches man’s actions as “disgraceful” and “disrespectful”. “They gave you a warning,” he said. “You just wouldn’t take a hint. Clearly alcohol had everything to do with that response.”
Kenjalo was sentenced to concurrent conditional release orders without conviction for assaulting police, resisting police and fail to provide particulars, to be served for 18 months.