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A player dressed up as late physicist Stephen Hawking viewing fake child abuse material. \ufeff (Nine)<\/p>\nA Perth football club has been suspended from its league for two years after a player dressed up as late physicist Stephen Hawking viewing fake child abuse material.<\/p>\n
The player was in a wheelchair with a mock-up of a communication system that had doctored images of a fake pornographic website on it as part of the Osborne Park Football Club’s “Silly Sunday” end-of-season celebrations at Robinson Reserve in August.<\/p>\n
Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin said council staff were “very distressed” to find the discarded costume during a routine inspection of the headquarters a couple of days later and reported the matter.<\/p>\n
A player dressed up as late physicist Stephen Hawking viewing fake child abuse material. \ufeff (Nine)<\/p>\n
The Perth Football League has now announced that the club will be unable to compete for two seasons after ruling the incident a severe breach of its integrity standards.<\/p>\n
“At a club-sanctioned event, offensive material was displayed depicting a doctored image of a child in a pornographic context,” Perth Football League boss Andrew Dawe said.<\/p>\n
“Senior club officials were present but failed to act.<\/p>\n
“A two-year suspension reflects the severity of the breach, and gives the club time to rebuild governance capability, re-engage with the City of Stirling to see if they can find a home for the club and time to demonstrate considerable reform before the possibility of returning to the competition.”\ufeff<\/p>\n
The suspension will begin in two weeks, but the club has that time to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n
WA Police \ufeffinvestigated the costume and found “no criminality”.<\/p>\n
The City of Stirling has, however, chosen to evict the club from its headquarters, arguing that it breached the behaviour clause in the lease agreement.\ufeff<\/p>\n
“Survivors of child abuse talking to us about the impact it has on them, I don’t \ufeffthink any of them would find this a joke, or find it funny, or find that there is a level of this that is acceptable in our community,” Irwin told reporters.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe there is any way of explaining how this is okay.”<\/p>\n
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The City of Stirling has chosen to evict Osborne Park Football Club from its headquarters. (Nine)![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b275fa75-61c4-4010-8b0e-2015262c9ba7.jpeg\")
Late physicist Stephen Hawking lived for decades with motor neurone disease. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Osborne Park Football Club president Jeremy LaBianca issued a statement in early October saying the player had only used photos of himself and nobody else in the fake material.<\/p>\n
“\ufeffIt was an offensive and incredibly distasteful costume, I am in no way trying to dispute that or defend the decision,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The allegation of child pornography hits me really hard – as it does for many members of our community who are parents, own businesses and\/or have public-facing roles\ufeff.”\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
LaBianca had earlier said he was “really embarrassed that we allowed this to happen and that we didn’t intervene on the day”.<\/p>\n
9News understands that the player involved is also embarrassed by his behaviour and apologises for any distress caused.<\/p>\n
He is also upset with the impact of his actions on the club. \ufeff<\/p>\n