Augustine Heights man, former footy player, Tafaipaia Sila faces Ipswich Court for assault

A trained boxer and former football player has faced court for ‘brutishly’ bashing a stranger who called him out for hogging a disabled parking space – along with kicking another man in the face just for refusing to give him a cigarette.

Disabled parking space. Generic image

A man was ushered to the emergency department with a fractured nose, bloody and nauseous with pain, after a complete stranger kicked him in the face all because the man didn’t give him a cigarette.

His attacker, a trained boxer and former football player, narrowly avoided deportation as he faced a southeast Queensland court for the “horrific attack”, which had followed another assault on a stranger over a disabled parking dispute.

Augustine Heights resident Tafaipaia Sila, 36, pleaded guilty in Ipswich Magistrates Court on December 14 to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Acting Magistrate Paul Byrne said Sila had committed the assaults eight months apart, the first on October 14, 2022, in Redbank Plains.

Mr Byrne said Sila had parked in a disabled car space “quite improperly” and noticed a stranger taking photos of his car.

“You took offence to that, feeling very entitled with your right to do whatever it is that you want to do.

“And in a brutish, bullying, anti-social, might is right way, used your force on that person.”

Mr Byrne said Sila punched the man in the face twice.

He emphasised that Sila was a “man of quite enormous size”.

“You should have more maturity and more brains, especially when you would be intimate with the damage that can be caused by people of your size,” he told Sila.

The court heard Sila was a trained boxer and had represented his former country, Samoa, as a footballer.

Mr Byrne said the second assault was arguably the worst of the two.

The court heard Sila had asked a man for a cigarette at a Springfield Central hotel on June 3, 2023.

The man, 28, said he didn’t have any, so Sila asked the man’s friend.

But when he was once again declined, Sila grabbed the back of the first man’s jumper and pushed him up some nearby stairs.

Mr Byrne said Sila then pushed him to the ground and kicked him in the face.

“The complainant heard a crack through his nose,” Mr Byrne said.

He said Sila left the man lying on the ground, as staff came over to help the man clean blood from his face.

Mr Byrne said one of the man’s friends then drove him to McDonalds, where he started vomiting because he was in “so much pain”.

He was then taken to the Ipswich Hospital emergency department, with a fracture to the eye socket and a fractured nose – which he required surgery to treat.

Mr Byrne said the “horrific attack” was simply “not acceptable”.

The court heard Sila’s visa would be cancelled if he received a jail sentence of 12 months or more.

Defence lawyer Madeline Jacks argued his head sentence could be reduced below that 12 month mark, as he had already spent around six months in custody on remand.

She said he had, therefore, already served actual custody equivalent to what would be expected for an 18 month sentence.

Mr Byrne said he was persuaded by Ms Jacks on this occasion, but warned Sila if there had been a third assault he “wouldn’t have blinked”.

“I would have gone home and I would have given myself a pat on the back that I had helped Australia get rid of someone who’s attitude has made them an undesirable person who was once an invitee to this country,” Mr Byrne said.

“If you were to repeat this conduct in the future, I think I can draw on 30 years in the justice system to think that your days in Australia would be numbered.”

Sila was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, wholly suspended for 18 months, along with 18 months probation.

His time in custody on remand was taken into account, but not formally declared time-served.

Originally published as Augustine Heights man, former footy player, Tafaipaia Sila faces Ipswich Court for assault