Thane Uile Vaughan Rankin pleads guilty to public nuisance in court over Irish Village Emerald street fight

A crowd of 30 people went from revelry to revolt over the course of a Saturday night and Sunday morning. So heated was the fight, that one of the members of the group allegedly got in their car and started running people down who were on foot. Full details here.

A wild brawl erupted outside the Irish Village pub in Emerald.

A night out on the town turned into a nightmare when a group of 30 people were involved in a street brawl outside a popular Central Queensland pub, with one person allegedly trying to run people down in their car.

The details of the wild incident emerged when Thane Uile Vaughan Rankin appeared in Emerald Magistrates Court on August 23, charged with one count of commit public nuisance within premises or in the vicinity of licensed premises.

The 24 year old pleaded guilty to the charge.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Rachel Todd told the court the incident occurred on Sunday, August 7, 2022 around 2am.

The court heard 10 phone calls were made by separate witnesses to the police that morning regarding a disturbance in the street outside the Irish Village Pub Emerald.

The fight travelled from outside of the pub, to the corner of Egerton and Anakie streets.

The court heard there were 30 people yelling and screaming expletives and smaller groups formed among those involved.

Sgt Todd said so heated was the fight, that one of the members of the group actually got in their car and allegedly started running people down who were on foot.

Police conducted a separate investigation into those allegations and have since charged the driver of the vehicle.

Police confirmed at least 12 people had been charged in relation to the incident, including a 20-year-old man, a 23-year-old woman and a 26-year-old woman all from Emerald who are due to appear in court on August 30 on public nuisance charges.

Thane Rankin.

Sgt Todd said police called to the incident switched on their body-worn cameras and positively identified Rankin as being in and around the group at the time of the incident.

While the defendant himself wasn’t physically abusive to anyone in the group or police, he did prevent the police from performing their duties at the time, which was to assist those who needed help and getting those people who weren’t hurt to move on from the scene.

“Police were actually hindered by the defendant, who was yelling and screaming and swearing at police, and other members involved in the fight,” Sgt Todd said.

“He was using profanities which included f---, and C---, and told police to f--- off, and he continued with derogatory names.

“The police successfully dispersed the crowd, and the defendant was issued a notice to appear in relation to this.

The court heard a police banning order was made at the time of the altercation which legally barred Rankin from the Irish Village pub Emerald, which is effective to September 7, 2022.

Rankin’s legal representative, visiting Rockhampton based duty lawyer for Legal Aid, Lachlan Robertson, said his client was currently receiving Centrelink jobseeker payments of about $650 fortnightly.

“He is currently not working but is doing courses and is actively looking for work in construction and mining industries,” he said.

“He does demonstrate remorse, both in his attendance from the police station, he demonstrated that remorse, but also by way of pleading guilty today.

“It is my submission that should be of some comfort to the court, that there was no actual violence perpetrated by my client against police.”

Mr Robertson asked the court to exercise its discretion when considering if a conviction was recorded or not.

The Irish Village, Emerald.

Magistrate Rosemary Gilbert noted there were drug related offences from 2019 and 2020, and another matter that was settled with a good behaviour bond in 2017, on Rankin’s record.

Ms Gilbert said Rankin’s offence was being apart of the crowd and he tried to prevent police from performing their duties.

“The public nuisance is you essentially directing abuse towards police,” Ms Gilbert said

“I accept there were things going on which may have caused people to be feeling highly stressed and emotional, but police were there to deal with that, and were simply trying to disperse the crowds so that they could attend to the people who needed attended to.

“It was not your place to be abusing them for doing that.

“I accept that you were able to be persuaded to move on and you attended the police station the next day, and expressed remorse to them.

“The fact that you’ve pleaded guilty today is also something I have regard to, because it shows that you are simply taking responsibility for your actions.

“The circumstances of the offence are something that I also have regards to, that is that there was a large group of you police needed to disperse.

“In respect to the matter, in my view a fine is appropriate, and I’m moderating the fine because you are pleading guilty today, and having regard to you financial circumstances.”

Rankin was convicted and fined a sum of $100. A conviction was recorded.

An application for a banning order was successfully made which will not only prevent Rankin from entering the Irish Village pub in Emerald, but will legally lock him out of every licensed establishment in Emerald until November 22, 2022.

Originally published as Thane Uile Vaughan Rankin pleads guilty to public nuisance in court over Irish Village Emerald street fight