Zane Crean, Joshua Catherall defend assault charges outside Vinyl Room, Gymea
Two mates have claimed they were acting in self defence after they were charged with assaulting two young men outside a popular nightclub in the Sutherland Shire.
St George Shire Standard
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Two men claim they were acting in self defence when they allegedly assaulted strangers, leaving one with a bloody nose outside a popular nightclub.
Zane Crean, 25, and Joshua Catherall, 21, pleaded not guilty to charges of common assault with Crean also denying a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm related to a fight outside Vinyl Room in Gymea last year.
Crean and Catherall, who live in Caringbah and Gymea respectively, defended the allegations at a hearing in Sutherland Local Court on Friday.
Police allege the men left the club in the early hours of July 23 before they got into a verbal altercation with another group of young men.
One of the men, Max Harris, allegedly tried to calm Crean down, telling him his group of friends did not want to fight.
“I said we want to go home, forget about it, and there is no need for a fight,” Mr Harris said when he gave evidence.
“I remained calm and I didn’t think there was going to be a fight and I thought I was being respectful.
“I got punched square in the jaw and I was pretty dazed and stunned.”
Mr Harris’s friend, Jude Wrigley, told the court he walked over to protect his mate.
Crean and Wrigley started yelling and swearing at each other before Crean allegedly punched Wrigley in the face.
The fight allegedly went on for a couple of minutes before security guards ran over to break up the brawl.
Mr Wrigley said his arms were held down by a guard at which time police allege Crean or Catherall punched Wrigley in the face, this time causing a bloody nose.
A club security guard told the court he detained Crean and Catherall after determining they appeared to be the “aggressors” because they were surrounding Wrigley.
The guard said he tried to remove Wrigley from the situation and took him further into the car park but Wrigley returned to the group and kept “carrying on” and “continued to make a problem out of himself.”
“We tried to hold back the aggressors but they continued to take shots at [Wrigley],” the security guard said.
“One individual would take a run up and take a shot, then run off and then another guy would do the same thing.”
The security guard clarified the men were trying to punch Wrigley while the guards were trying to keep the groups separated.
The security guards managed to stop further physical contact between the parties until police arrived and Crean and Catherall were arrested.
The security guard gave a brief handover to police and logged the incident. He told the court the men were all intoxicated.
Police body worn footage, shown in court, showed Crean and Catherall sitting on the ground after being arrested where they pleaded with officers to tell their side of the incident.
“I done nothing wrong … can I explain to you … they tried to gang me … they all jumped on me … let me tell my side,” Crean said. “We’ve done nothing wrong.”
Crean and Catherall’s lawyer Karryn Vanzino suggested the men were acting in self defence and cross examined the witnesses, asking whether they saw Crean on the ground, being dragged or stomped, which was denied by all.
Magistrate Melissa Humphries will hand down her judgment following a short second day of the hearing on May 19.
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