NRL star Latrell Mitchell pleads guilty to firearm charge after Taree trip
Latrell Mitchell has pleaded guilty to a firearms charge but won’t be sentenced until after the 2020 NRL finals. The charge followed a camping trip on the Rabbitohs star’s property where a fellow player was photographed holding his gun.
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NRL superstar Latrell Mitchell has pleaded guilty to giving Melbourne Storm flyer Josh Addo-Carr a single-barrel shotgun on an infamous boys’ weekend but Mitchell will not be sentenced until after the 2020 finals series.
Mitchell’s barrister Matthew Davis told Taree Local Court via email this morning his client was pleading guilty to one count of giving a firearm to a person not authorised by a licence or permit, which followed the weekend away at Mitchell’s Caffeys Flat property in April.
The case has been adjourned to November 9 for sentence, two weeks after the NRL grand final date.
Mr Davis said in the email the current NRL player bubble was one of the reasons he requested a “longer than usual adjournment”.
“Mr Mitchell’s employment situation is such that he is required to isolate himself from the general public or risk serious financial and other sanctions. Those circumstances limit Mr Mitchell’s ability (to) personally appear in Court or appear while in the same room as me via AVL, confer with me, and prepare for sentence,” Mr Davis wrote.
Magistrate Greg Elks granted the adjournment when both Mitchell and Addo-Carr had their cases mentioned at Taree today. Neither player was required to attend in person.
“It’s fairly common knowledge both these men are tied up with the NRL and at the moment they’re in a bubble,” Mr Elks said.
Lawyers for Josh Addo-Carr, who was charged with using an unauthorised firearm, did not enter a plea, giving them until September 1 to consider his case further.
Addo-Carr has engaged high profile solicitor Elias Tabchouri who revealed he was challenging Addo-Carr’s COVID fine at a separate court hearing scheduled for Taree in October.
“We will challenge the COVID fine and we’re still investigating aspects of that challenge. We’re still assessing his position in relation to the (alleged) firearms offence,” Mr Tabchouri told The Daily Telegraph.
Video and photos posted to Instagram showed the group of a dozen men riding dirt bikes on the beach, sitting around a campfire and, in one clip, Addo-Carr is allegedly depicted firing a gun.
Both players were fined $1000 for breaching COVID-19 travel bans at the time.
A set of police facts in Mitchell’s case said Addo-Carr was firing a Dickinson brand T1000, 12-guage single barrel shotgun owned by Mitchell in the video posted to social media.
Mitchell had a gun license, which is now suspended, but Addo-Carr did not.
The documents state “major Sydney-based media outlets” began reporting on the videos after they surfaced on the night of April 26.
“The photographs and videos then also came to the attention of police who commenced an investigation concerning the alleged firearms offences,” the facts said.
Beer and vodka bottles had been placed as targets among the remnants of the house on Mitchell’s property, which burnt down in the 2019 bushfire disaster.
Nobody was at the property when police arrived in the following days but the campfire was still smouldering and 26 shotgun shells were recovered.
On April 28, Mitchell went to Taree Police Station where he declined an offer for a recorded police interview. He handed over three of his firearms and made arrangements to surrender other guns he had in Sydney.
Both players were fined $50,000, with 60 per cent suspended, by the NRL over the COVID breach saga. The league today said it was not going to comment on Mitchell’s case until it was completely finalised in court.
Mitchell is free to play in Friday’s game against the Brisbane Broncos.