Vaughan Spilsbury’s wild night at Kazzbar leads to cop assault

“You c**** are f*****”: A Tasmanian man lost the plot after his friend was arrested outside a popular East Coast watering hole, leading to four charges.

An unemployed Tasmanian boilermaker lost the plot when his friend was arrested outside a popular East Coast watering hole, assaulting a constable by pushing them over before “aggressively” resisting arrest and verbally abusing officers.

Exeter man Vaughan James Spilsbury, 25, pleaded guilty on Monday in Launceston Magistrates Court to four charges: assaulting, resisting, obstructing and using abusive language towards a police officer.

He was fined $800 and ordered to pay costs of approximately $210, but spared criminal convictions.

All offences were committed outside St Helens watering hole The Kazzbar about 10.40pm on April 16 this year.

Spilsbury’s friend was being arrested in the carpark when Spilsbury and a co-accused approached the two officers, yelling “loudly and aggressively... ‘What the f*** do you think you’re doing’,” the court heard.

Spilsbury and his co-accused then “separated” the officer from the man under arrest, before Spilsbury pushed the constable, causing them to fall backwards.

Spilsbury and his co-accused were capsicum sprayed but the pair remained “abusive an aggressive” and put up “heavy resistance” towards being handcuffed, repeatedly wrenching their hands away and verbally abusing the “outnumbered” officers, telling them, “You c**** are f*****”.

The court heard Spilsbury and his co-accused remained aggressive and abusive in the back of the divvy van as they were transported to St Helens Police Station.

Spilsbury, who had no relevant criminal history conceded to the court he was affected by alcohol.

He told the court he was camping with friends on his family’s Ansons Bay property when the group went for a few drinks at St Helens.

Spilsbury, who went to school at St Helens, said his friend who was initially arrested by police made the mistake of taking an open container of liquor from his vehicle into The Kazzbar.

He believed the officers who arrested his friend used heavy-handed tactics, leading to Silsbury’s violent reaction.

“I generally don’t have problems co-operating with police but that sort of thing triggers me, I thought they were abusing their powers,” he said.

Spilsbury told the court he had not consumed alcohol since the incident and was looking to get back into work.