{"id":453551,"date":"2026-02-02T12:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/453551\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T12:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:14:20","slug":"ex-nrl-players-child-choking-and-assault-charges-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/453551\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NRL player’s child-choking and assault charges heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charges against former NRL star Josh McGuire have been aired in court for the first time since he was accused of choking and assaulting a child.<\/p>\n

The ex-Brisbane NRL forward and Queensland State of Origin player was due to appear in person in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday after an initial date in December was adjourned.<\/p>\n

However, solicitor Emma Kearney made an application for the 35-year-old to be excused from appearing, which was granted by Deputy Chief Magistrate Anthony Gett.<\/p>\n

McGuire – who is on bail – is charged with choking, suffocation or strangulation against a child as well as common assault against a child.<\/p>\n

\"Solicitor<\/p>\n

Solicitor Emma Kearney said the prosecution had not disclosed the brief of evidence. (Darren England\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Ms Kearney on Monday also asked Mr Gett to force prosecutors to disclose evidence in the case.<\/p>\n

“The brief of evidence has not been disclosed despite the arresting officer telling our office prior Christmas that they were in possession of a (statement of evidence by a child) and a statement by the complainant child’s mother,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Nothing has been disclosed to our office.”<\/p>\n

Ms Kearney said the material was “particularly pertinent” for McGuire to make changes to his bail conditions.<\/p>\n

“The Crown has opposed all attempts to vary bail \u2026 we can’t reasonably make any application in the absence of that evidence,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Kearney sought a direction that prosecutors provide the evidence within a week.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh McGuire earned 14 State of Origin caps for Queensland. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The prosecutor called for a two-week adjournment to process and provide the evidence to McGuire’s defence.<\/p>\n

“A large portion of the brief of evidence has been received by our office. We are in the process of disclosing material,” the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

Mr Gett ordered prosecutors to provide the child and mother’s statements to McGuire’s defence within the next week.<\/p>\n

The case was adjourned to February 16 and McGuire’s bail was extended.<\/p>\n

McGuire played 259 NRL games over 15 seasons after beginning his career at the Brisbane Broncos in 2009.<\/p>\n

He earned 14 Origin caps for Queensland and played Tests for Samoa and Australia before finishing his stellar run in the UK Super League for Warrington in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charges against former NRL star Josh McGuire have been aired in court for the first time since he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,234169,4428,36619,52767,183951,761,762,158,234168,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-453551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brief-of-evidence","11":"tag-brisbane-broncos","12":"tag-brisbane-magistrates-court","13":"tag-emma-kearney","14":"tag-josh-mcguire","15":"tag-national-rugby-league","16":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","17":"tag-nrl","18":"tag-queensland-state-of-origin","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453551","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=453551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}