NTFL player and alleged street thug has bail varied to attend Grand Final, contact boyfriend

NTFL player and alleged violent street thug Tayarrah Morris will be allowed to contact her boyfriend and go to Saturday’s Grand Final

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NTFL player and alleged violent street thug Tayarrah Morris will be allowed to contact her boyfriend and go to Saturday’s Grand Final after her bail conditions were varied on Thursday.

The 25-year-old returned to the Supreme Court where she is charged with unlawfully causing serious harm for her alleged role in a “disgusting” six on one attack on Mitchell St last Christmas Eve.

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In applying to have her bail conditions varied, lawyer Peter Bellach said his client was in a relationship with the group’s alleged ringleader, Maea Tongamoa, and “they would like to still maintain that”.

“It’s very difficult for that to endure over the course of this court matter if they can’t have any form of communication,” he said.

“She’s concerned for him and they were living together, it’s not as though they’re acquaintances or friends — it was a real relationship.”

Crown prosecutor Cecily Hollingworth did not appear for the hearing and Mr Bellach said she had agreed to the variation but the police officer in charge of the case “had a different view”.

Palmerston Magpies Women’s Premier League player Tayarrah Morris outside the Supreme Court in Darwin.

He said the Crown did not oppose another variation that would exclude TIO Stadium on Saturday from a ban on Morris attending licenced venues so she could go to the Grand Final.

Prosecutor Tiarni McNamee stepped in for her colleague at short notice, raising concerns about the possibility of members of the group colluding if the contact ban was relaxed.

But Chief Justice Michael Grant said he understood that wasn’t the basis for the group being barred from seeing each other in the first place.

“I think the basis for the no contact condition was simply to keep them away from each other lest they get into further trouble rather than preventing them from concocting stories,” he said.

“Because of course the whole thing’s captured on CCTV footage so there’s not much that can be done about that”.

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Chief Justice Grant said he would grant the application despite Ms Hollingworth’s absence.

“If Ms Hollingworth wants to come along and apply for a further variation of bail back to the original conditions for some reason that’s not apparent on the material presently before me or passing between the parties in communication, she can do that,” he said.

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