{"id":30515,"date":"2025-07-29T17:51:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/30515\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:51:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:51:25","slug":"assault-claims-against-afl-legend-nicky-winmar-surface-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/30515\/","title":{"rendered":"Assault claims against AFL legend Nicky Winmar surface in court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">AFL great Nicky Winmar has been accused of two assaults and of intentionally choking a person, court documents reveal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The former St Kilda star, 59, had been listed for an application to revoke bail at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, which could have seen him thrown in jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">However, a prosecutor asked for this to be struck out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe court made the decision to bail Mr Winmar on the 19th of July based on that application,\u201d she said, as the magistrate agreed to strike it out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Winmar faced court charged with three offences, however details of what these allege were not aired during the short hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He has been charged with allegedly committing two assaults on July 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He is also charged with \u201cwithout lawful excuse intentionally choke, strangle or suffocate\u201d a person on the same date, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Winmar, whose legal name is Neil, was represented in court on Tuesday morning by his lawyer Tess Theocharous and both of them appeared via video link.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Ms Theocharous said Winmar was undergoing a court integrated services program (CISP) as a condition of his bail, which had been granted on July 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">She asked for his matter to be adjourned so he can have time to engage with the program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Ms Theocharous said Winmar had attended an initial appointment at the court for CISP and had another scheduled for later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/f48edba196b1ccaf0f7a29797571b5901dad4789.jpg\" alt=\"Nicky Winmar. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS)\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Nicky Winmar. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano agreed to adjourn his case for a month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Winmar will next face the court on August 28.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">AFL boss Andrew Dillon briefly mentioned Winmar when facing media today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI\u2019m not across any of the detail with Nicky, but I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s terrible if someone is in court facing judges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The AFL legend became the first Aboriginal footballer to play 200 games in the league, finishing his career with 230 games at St Kilda and 21 for the Western Bulldogs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Winmar has faced court before &#8211; he avoided a jail sentence and was handed a community work order in 2019 for his drunken assault of a cab driver.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He fought back against a number of acts of racism throughout his football career, including standing in front of a Collingwood crowd in 1993 where he was abused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI\u2019m black and I\u2019m proud to be black,\u201d he told the crowd, lifting his guernsey and pointing at his skin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In March, he was asked to co-lead a landmark racism class action in the Supreme Court, brought by other retired Indigenous players including Phil Krakouer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Phil Krakouer, who played 141 games for North Melbourne, lodged the case in the Supreme Court in September 2023, alleging senior AFL management did nothing to prevent racism within the sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The class action is open to any Indigenous players who claim they experienced racism, racial vilification, discrimination, abuse, violence or victimisation between 1975 and 2023, while participating in the AFL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Outside court earlier this year, the class action\u2019s lawyer Michel Margalit spoke about Winmar\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cMr Winmar suffered prolonged racial vilification in the workplace and it\u2019s certainly culminated in that famous moment that was photographed in 1993,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cHe\u2019s been left with the mental scars of that racial vilification, in circumstances where he\u2019s unable to walk away. So he certainly brings considerable experience, and considerable injury from those experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL great Nicky Winmar has been accused of two assaults and of intentionally choking a person, court documents&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-30515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}