Ethan Biemans pleads guilty to affray, wilful damage over James St brawl

A wild fight in the heart of Geelong’s nightlife precinct was caught on camera, from the moment it erupted over “banter” to the second police swooped in to break it up.

A man’s drunken decision to get out of an Uber and confront two men over verbal “banter” ended in what a magistrate said was “textbook affray”.

Ethan Biemans, 30, appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to affray and wilful damage following a sentence indication by magistrate Gerard Bryant.

The court heard at approximately 11:30pm on May 16 this year, Biemans was preparing to get into an Uber in James St with his partner when he had a verbal altercation with two men.

The court heard the men had directed “banter and insults” at the couple.

In CCTV footage of the incident played to the court, Biemans got out of the Uber, walked around to the two men and confronted them.

One of the men remained unidentified, the court heard.

The other man, Riley Collins, hit Biemans over the head with a bottle and a violent scuffle erupted between the pair.

The two men wrestled and punched each other, and at one point Biemans slammed Collins onto his back on the bonnet of the Uber driver’s car, causing a “significant dint” estimated to cost between $800-$900 to fix.

Biemans and Collins continued wrestling on the ground until police officers driving past saw what was happening and swooped in to arrest them. Both men were later charged over the incident.

The court heard Collins’ matter had alredy resolved by way of a diversion.

A diversion is a way for low-level offenders, who have accepted responsibility for their actions, to avoid a criminal record.

In Collins’ case, the matter was adjourned on October 29 to July 7 next year for him to complete a diversion plan on a charge of wilful property damage.

Biemans’ lawyer, Bill Sizeland, had argued that his client had made “minimal contact” prior to being smashed over the head with a bottle, and his response was an “instinctive reaction” to protect himself against a “very violent assault”.

“What is he to do, stand there and continue to get assaulted?” Mr Sizeland said.

Mr Bryant, upon viewing the footage, told the court he had “not one iota of doubt” that the charge of affray was made out and that Biemans was the “instigator of the physical violence”.

In sentencing him, Mr Bryant told Biemans that the footage of the incident depicted the kind of “drunken, senseless violence” that was “all too prevalent, all too common on our streets”.

He warned Biemans someone could have been seriously injured or killed, and Biemans himself was fortunate he wasn’t more seriously injured by being hit over the head with a bottle.

However Mr Bryant said what happened was sparked by Biemans choice to get out of the car.

“In a perfect world, you should have stayed in the car. In a perfect world, you should have let the taunts and the abuse wash over you,” Mr Bryant told Biemans, adding it “came as no surprise” that he was intoxicated at the time.

Mr Sizeland said the incident had left Biemans “rattled” and he’d since sought help for his alcohol use.

“Clearly you morph into a different person or personality when intoxicated,” Mr Bryant said, adding the “community is sick to death of drunken, anti-social violence on our streets”.

Biemans was convicted and placed on a 12-month undertaking to be of good behaviour, with conditions he pay $1200 to the court fund, complete an anger management course and continue with the one-on-one alcohol counselling he had already started.

Originally published as Ethan Biemans pleads guilty to affray, wilful damage over James St brawl