AFL star Shannon Grant escapes with fine over ex-girlfriend pub attack
FORMER North Melbourne premiership star Shannon Grant has escaped with a fine over a frightening pub assault on his ex-girlfriend in Queensland.
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FORMER North Melbourne premiership star Shannon Grant has escaped with a fine over a frightening pub assault on his ex-girlfriend in Queensland.
Grant pleaded guilty to breaching a domestic violence order by twice attacking the woman in the Duporth Tavern, in Maroochydore in January.
But despite already being on a two-year community corrections order for three previous assaults on her in Victoria, the Norm Smith medallist escaped with a $1200 fine.
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Police had sought a suspended jail term in a hearing at Maroochydore Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, where Grant was represented by a solicitor but appeared by phone.
Queensland Police prosecutor Senior Constable Stuart Lydford told the Herald Sun that Grant had walked out of the tavern after an argument with his then-partner on the evening of January 13, returning a minute later and throwing an item of clothing over her face.
“A few seconds later he’s picked up another item of clothing. The accepted facts are that he pushed the item of clothing into her face, causing her head to move backwards,” he said.
Security officers then asked Grant to leave and the woman was consoled by other patrons.
The attack was caught on CCTV.
Grant had not co-operated with investigators in the aftermath of the incident, Sen Constable Lydford said.
“He rarely made it easy for us. Police made numerous attempts to contact him and he made no attempts to contact us,’’ he said.
But Magistrate Rod Madsen heard that Grant had joined a domestic violence perpetrators program in Melbourne and sought treatment for alcoholism.
In August, Grant successfully appealed a six-month jail term over the three Victorian attacks on the same woman, fuelled by alcohol and jealousy.
In June 2017, she needed hospital treatment after Grant picked her up and threw her into a fence after a dinner party at his Highett home.
On November 30, he threw a beer bottle at the woman’s head, dragged her to his car at Sandringham beach and later choked her.
Four days after Christmas, during a romantic weekend at Yarra Valley’s Balgownie Estate winery, Grant stomped on her bare foot as she climbed out of the bath, then dragged her across the floor by her hair, leaving her battered and bruised.
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