Former Brisbane Lion Albert Proud jailed for five years over vicious attack on ex-partner

FORMER AFL player Albert Proud, who bashed his girlfriend of two months, has been sentenced to more than five years in jail.

Former Brisbane Lions player Albert Proud has been jailed over the vicious bashing of his ex-girlfriend, Richelle Kadadi.

A FORMER AFL player who almost killed his girlfriend of two months in a vicious, alcohol-fuelled bashing has been sentenced to more than five years in jail.

Albert Proud, 27, played 29 games for the Brisbane Lions before being sacked in 2011 due to a litany of alcohol-related, off-field incidents.

On Monday, the Brisbane District Court heard he was drunk the night of November 8, 2015 when he “just snapped” and bashed his then-girlfriend Richelle Kadadi so severely, she lost more than a litre of blood.

Ms Kadadi spent more than a month in hospital recovering from head injuries.

The court heard alcohol gave the normally calm Proud a “Jekyll and Hyde” type persona, and in sentencing, Judge Tony Moynihan said, “you are a danger to members of the community when you are drunk”.

The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and wilful damage, before being sentenced to five and a half years in jail.

With time already served, he will be eligible for parole in October, 2017.

Albert Proud in action in 2010. Picture: Darren England

Ms Kadadi lost a litre of blood and spent more than a month in hospital.

Crown prosecutor Joshua Hanna said Proud became violent after he and Ms Kadadi, who had been together for only two-and-a-half months, attended a wedding and then a party.

The one-time athlete had been affectionate earlier in the evening but his mood shifted after Ms Kadadi handed him his wet clothes as they left the party, where he’d been pushed into a pool, he said.

The court heard Proud threw the items onto the roof of the house and said “who f****ing cares” when she asked him why he’d done it.

When they got into the car he started striking the windscreen and gearstick before eventually attacking his then-partner at a home at Sunnybank, in Brisbane’s south.

Mr Hanna said she recalled being punched so hard in the chest she thought she was having a heart attack because of the “excruciating pain”.

She suffered at least two blows to her head after the strike to her chest, was strangled and grabbed by her shoulders and arms.

Richelle Kadadi before the attack. She suffers ongoing memory loss.

Later, the bride and groom from the wedding drove past the house and saw the “terrified” woman run onto the road, her clothes stretched from someone pulling them, the court heard.

“She said she’d been bashed (and) thought she was going to die,” Mr Hanna said.

Ms Kadadi lost a litre of blood and suffered from post-traumatic amnesia in the wake of the attack.

In his submissions, defence barrister Greg McGuire said Proud himself couldn’t explain why he had lashed out so violently, telling the court: “Something just snapped in him”.

“Albert Proud sober is different from Albert Proud drunk,” Mr McGuire said, adding his relationship with alcohol had “devastating consequences” for both Proud and his victim.

Judge Moynihan said the attack had a “catastrophic” impact in Ms Kadadi.

“This ordeal has had a profound effect on her life,” he said, noting Proud’s criminal history included assaults on other women.

He will be eligible for parole on October 12, 2017.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800 RESPECT.

In an emergency call triple-zero.

Originally published as Former Brisbane Lion Albert Proud jailed for five years over vicious attack on ex-partner