NTFL player copped ‘vilification’ in social media ‘pile on’ after brutal Xmas eve bashing

A top Darwin footy player involved in a brutal Christmas Eve bashing outside Monsoons two years ago has testified about the ‘vilification’ later doled out to her on social media.

A TOP Darwin footy player involved in a brutal Christmas Eve bashing outside Monsoons two years ago has testified about the “vilification” later doled out to her on social media.

Palmerston Magpies player, Tayarrah Morris, 26, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to recklessly endangering serious harm for her role as part of a group who beat a tourist unconscious outside the nightclub on December 24, 2020.

During a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Morris took the stand to outline the online abuse she suffered since the incident, including being told she should “kill yourself before somebody else does” or be “bagged and thrown off a bridge”.

In sentencing Morris to 14 months in prison, to be suspended after 28 days time served, Justice Judith Kelly said the “outrageous comments” went “well beyond” any “legitimate public denunciation”.

“The level of piling on, for want of a better expression, for people who attract the ire of a certain segment of the community, is horrendous, absolutely awful,” she said.

“Someone called Callum Claude, who should be ashamed of himself, wrote ‘Fat, ugly slut, your dad hates you and your mum’s a junkie, mutt, whole family should be stomped dead’.

“Why people feel that they have either the need or the right to write things like that is absolutely beyond me.”

Tayarrah Morris in CCTV footage of the attack and (inset) outside court. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Justice Kelly said comments about Morris’s family in particular were “just appalling” but “what one has come to expect on social media”.

“They know nothing — nothing — about the offender’s family,” she said.

“One expects there to be community disapproval, community denunciation, it’s an aspect of having committed a crime, but some of these comments are absolutely over the top.”

In her evidence, Morris also told the court she was sorry for attacking the man and causing him harm and “trauma that I would never understand”.

“It’s wrong and I’m so disappointed in myself for allowing it to get as far as it did, or even happen at all,” she said.

But Justice Kelly said while she gave less weight to the social media commentary than if Morris had suffered physical punishment and while she accepted Morris was genuinely remorseful, the court had to send a message that her behaviour was “completely unacceptable”.

“A mob of you attacked that unfortunate man, and the attack continued after he was lying on the ground unconscious,” she said.

“You took an active part in punching and kicking that man a number of times while he was down and unable to defend himself.

“You redeemed yourself somewhat by later trying to stop (one of the others) from further attacking the victim, however, you, along with the other offenders, walked away, leaving the victim lying on the road.”