Ethan Damien Davidson pleads guilty to assault

A drunk teenager’s attempt to ‘exact revenge’ against a pub security guard, who allegedly caused tens of thousands of dental damage to his friend, went sideways when he instead attacked an innocent man.

Ethan Damien Davidson pleaded guilty to charges of assault and obstructung police after he tried to exact revenge against a hotel security guard who allegedly assaulted a friend, but instead targeted the wrong man.

A drunk teenager’s attempt to launch a revenge attack against a pub security guard who allegedly bashed his friend went terribly awry after he targeted the wrong man.

Ethan Damien Davidson, from Gympie, was celebrating his birthday at the Queenslander Hotel with friends on the night he assaulted the guard in the early hours of December 12, 2021.

Lawyer Chris Anderson told Gympie Magistrates Court his 19-year-old client had drunk too much and been removed from the hotel.

His friend had come out to find him and was refused re-entry, too.

Undeterred, Davidson’s friend went around the back of the hotel and climbed the fence only to be frogmarched out once more and “gratuitously assaulted” during the eviction.

Mr Anderson said the friend had suffered tens of thousands of dollars in dental damage from the alleged assault.

Davidson had been celebrating his birthday at the Queenslander Hotel when he was denied re-entry to the premises after consuming too much alcohol.

The security guard has been charged.

Police prosecutor Vikki Kennedy-Grills said about 12.40pm of the night in question Davidson saw two police officers talking to a guard outside the hotel’s entrance.

Sgt Kennedy-Grills said Davidson mistook the man for the guard who allegedly assaulted his friend and wanted to “exact some level of revenge”.

He“sprinted … across the road, jumped, and kicked the security guard’s chest with two feet” before landing on the ground, Sgt Kennedy-Grills said.

He then stood up and punched the guard in the abdomen, yelling obscenities at him and referring to him as “maggot” before being arrested.

Davidson pleaded guilty to charges of assault and obstructing police.

Magistrate Chris Callaghan said fined Davidson $600 and ordered no conviction be recorded, noting the 19-year-old’s attack “had no real impact on the guard”.

Originally published as Ethan Damien Davidson pleads guilty to assault