Names behind Gold Coast club fights, how the city’s party precincts have changed
The Gold Coast’s rate of party precinct violence was dropping pre-pandemic, but with pent up energy returning to the Glitter Stirp an expert has issued a dire warning.
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Gold Coast party precinct violence was dropping pre-Covid pandemic – but a leading psychology expert says it’s a potential powder keg due to pent-up youth frustration.
A Queensland Labor Government-commissioned report into the impacts of 2016 laws aimed at tackling alcohol-fuelled violence found it was dropping in the lead up to Covid.
But now Deakin University psychology expert Peter Miller, who worked on the report, says pent-up youth frustration from two years of pandemic shutdowns may bubble over.
“In quite a few states things are going awry, I’m not sure if things are the same in Queensland and on the Gold Coast but it’s a trend a lot of Australia is seeing,” he said.
“It’s now been a couple of years since kids have been allowed to go out (properly), so those going out haven’t had that kind of experience before.
“There’s a lot of frustration physically, emotionally and sexually all bubbling.
FLASHBACK: MORE THAN 600 PHOTOS OF NIGHTLIFE ON GOLD COAST
“We were seeing Queensland doing a lot better in some aspects but Covid has thrown that all up in the air.”
But Gold Coast Acting Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman said the Schoolies class of 2021 had given insight into what was to come when youths returned to the Glitter Strip.
“That’s a group that have gone through nearly two years of a disjointed education and social network, and as a result we were a little bit uncertain about how that group would behave at Schoolies. We were pleasantly surprised.
“Our young people are actually really adaptive at managing change.”
Supt Wildman said they didn’t know how things would unfold coming into 2022 on the back of pandemic restrictions easing, “but its looking positive at the moment”, revealing they were continuing to monitor for issues.
Supt Wildman said a 12-month wanding trial had also funded more resources in party precincts.
Entertainment precincts are almost at pre-pandemic numbers and in the weekend just gone significant crowds passed through, on the back of a music festival.
“Again the behaviour was generally really good,” Supt Wildman said.
He said police were already planning for larger operations in the precincts.
LIST: GOLD COAST’S CLUB FIGHTS BELOW >>
PARTY PRECINCTS PRE-Covid
The Queensland Government’s Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence (TAFV) laws brought last drinks forward two hours to 3am, banned high-strength drinks such as shots after midnight and made ID scanning of patrons after 10pm compulsory in 2016.
The April 2019 report examining how effective the new rules found in Surfers Paradise from October, 2017, to June 30, 2018, that 1405 banned patrons were weeded out via ID scanners. The majority – 917 in total – were aged 18 to 24 with 83 per cent being males.
Surfers Paradise Licensed Venues Association president Tim Martin told the Bulletin late last yearID scanning – despite being an added cost and requiring staffing – had helped clean up the Glitter Strip.
“The majority of incidents that occur would have come from the same people over and over,” Mr Martin said.
“What scanning did was find the d***heads and made them accountable. If you were banned on the Gold Coast, you were banned in Brisbane.”
The scanning system created a statewide database, meaning if you were red-flagged in one precinct, you were red-flagged everywhere.
The report also looked at the number of ambulance call-outs per month during 8pm to 6am on Friday and Saturday nights from July, 2011, to June, 2018.
The number of call-outs in Surfers Paradise decreased 15.94 per cent from 8pm to midnight, by 30.77 per cent from midnight to 3am and by a whopping 39.29 per cent from 3am to 6am.
Police data from the start of 2009 to June, 2018 was also documented, which found serious assaults per month decreased by 27.81 per cent. Common assaults per month dropped 21.25 per cent in Surfers Paradise.
Since the pandemic, nightclubs on the Gold Coast have faced numerous regulations including no dancing, limited capacity and at times total closures.
Some venues were unable to last – including popular Melbas nightclub which shut its doors in May 2020 after 39 years of business.
Regulations have eased for the hospitality industry in recent months, allowing more people to go out but QR check ins remain, with Mr Martin saying he didn’t know what the government was waiting for given “the government isn’t even using the contract tracing and I’ve never seen anyone check in to any shop or supermarket”.
According to Queensland Police statistics, in the last two years there’s been 243 assaults in the Surfers Paradise Safe Night Precinct from 10pm to 6am.
Over half occurred in the last year and 102 of the assaults occurred in the last six months.
Here are some of the violent dramas from the Gold Coast hospitality scene in the past two decades.
NAMED: GOLD COAST CLUB FIGHTERS
Joash Scorpion Meier
The security guard was working at a Surfers Paradise club when he pinned a man’s arms behind his back, put his leg out and pushed him on November 16, 2019.
It caused the man to fall to the ground and Meier fell on top of him.
After the incident Meier denied he did anything wrong and told police he thought he was losing grip of the victim when he fell on top of him.
The victim suffered significant injuries and spent four days in hospital.
Meier, who was 25 at the time, pleaded guilty to assault, occasioning bodily harm in November 2020.
Judge David Jackson sentenced Meier to 15 months jail, wholly suspended.
“You’re really very lucky the complainant wasn’t more seriously injured,” he said.
Stephen Lavelle
The former Scottish boxer got into a fight after he urinated on two teenage girls in a nightclub while on the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games.
Stephen Lavelle, who was 28 at the time, sparked a dance floor brawl at Sin City club at the time in August 2018.
He was found guilty of assault later that year in the Southport Magistrates Court but managed to avoid jail time for the fight.
CCTV footage was released and showed the altercation began when Lavelle urinated on Kortney Rykers Hollier and her friend Amy Wallace. The pair of then 18 year olds were dancing in the nightclub at the time.
The women told Ms Rykers Hollier’s cousin Bilal Strickland, also 18 at the time, about what happened and footage shows him confronting Lavell.
The bronze medallist from the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, is seen in the footage to react angrily and strikes Mr Strickland in the face. He also unintentionally hits Ms Rykers Hollier.
The footage then shows Mr Strickland jumping over the railing separating the two men.
Footage later shows Mr Strickland being helped out of the nightclub with blood covering his face and body.
Maxim Wecker
The German tourist punched a man in Surfers Paradise and left him fighting for his life in hospital after he was called a “Nazi”.
Wecker was sentenced to two years prison in the Southport District Court in June, 2017 but was released after serving eight months.
Wecker was in the Surfers Paradise Safe Night Out Precinct on October 26, 2016 when he exchanged words with Jack Gahan and another man.
The court heard the second man flicked a cigarette butt at Wecker’s face and called him a “Nazi” due to Wecker’s German heritage.
Wecker then punched Mr Gahan and a fight between Wecker and the other man broke out.
Prosecutor Natalie Lima said bystander Matthew John Scott came to help.
“Mr Scott pulled the man away from the defendant,” she said.
“He turned his back and Mr Scott was punched from behind.”
Mr Scott immediately fell to the ground and hit his head on the footpath, suffering seizures on his way to hospital.
The internal head injuries kept him in hospital for five days.
Shannan Taylor
The veteran Australian boxer was found guilty of assault in Southport Magistrates Court in 2007 for hitting bar manager Peter Francis Houston.
The incident happened after Taylor allegedly groped Mr Houston’s wife Susan in September 2006.
The former WBF super middleweight world champion denied pinching the woman on the backside during a wedding reception, saying he was instead shaking hands with another guest.
He also denied assaulting Mr Houston at the Gold Coast’s Avenue nightclub later.
He was fined $600 for assault and ordered to pay $300 in compensation to his victim.
An indecent assault charge was dismissed.
Taylor, known as the Bulli Blaster, finished his boxing career at 52-10-3.
On 28 November 2011, Taylor was admitted to hospital in Wollongong in a critical condition after an accidental heroin overdose. He regained consciousness after a week in an induced coma.
Since then he has not touched drugs and swears he never will again.
In 2019 he was inducted into the Australian Boxing Hall of Fame.
Albert Proud
Albert Proud was playing for the Brisbane Lions when the former AFL star found himself in trouble after a night out on the Gold Coast.
He was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm in February 2009 for allegedly throwing a glass at a woman in a Surfers Paradise nightclub.
It resulted in the 23-year-old receiving facial injuries.
Proud was sanctioned by the court to a three-month intensive correctional order with strict reporting conditions, probation, 100 hours of community service and an $8000 compensation order paid to the victims.
Later in life the former AFL player was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2015 after pleading guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on his then girlfriend Richelle Kadadi, as well as a wilful damage charge.
Shane Bowden
The notorious bikie, who was killed on the Gold Coast in 2020, received a nine-month suspended jail sentence in 2005 for bashing a man while working as a bouncer on the Glitter Strip.
He was ordered to pay $12,500 to the victim.
A police brief from 2005 says the attack happened after the man was refused entry to a Gold Coast nightclub.
The victim told police he asked a bouncer why he couldn’t get back into the club when Bowden walked out of the venue, grabbed him by the arm, pushed him onto the footpath and said “because it’s my club.”
Police said the man asked Bowden again why he couldn’t enter and he “responded by leaning his right shoulder back as if he was going to turn around … and then all of a sudden swung his right clenched fist through, striking him in the mouth and teeth area”.
Witnesses said they saw the man “fly through the air”.
The man lost three teeth and surgery was required on his gums.
When police approached Bowden after the incident he claimed another man who looked like him had committed the assault.
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