{"id":871053,"date":"2026-08-28T04:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T04:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871053\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T04:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T04:52:17","slug":"disgraced-afl-footballer-nicky-winmar-appealing-jail-term-for-assaulting-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871053\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced AFL footballer Nicky Winmar appealing jail term for assaulting woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disgraced footballer Nicky Winmar is appealing a six-month jail sentence for assaulting a woman in northern Victoria last year.<\/p>\n

Last month, Winmar was found guilty of three counts of assault after he smashed a woman’s head against a door and dragged her by the hair in Cohuna, north of Bendigo.<\/p>\n

At a plea hearing earlier this month, the victim, who cannot be identified, said Winmar’s attack had left her a “shadow of the person” she was.<\/p>\n

Winmar has since been removed from the Australian Football Hall of Fame and a bronze statue of his response to racist abuse, which stood outside Perth Stadium in his home state, has been removed.<\/p>\n

Today the 60-year-old was handed a six-month jail sentence with a 12-month community corrections order to be completed upon his release.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Nicky Winmar was found guilty of assault last month.\u00a0 (Supplied: Magistrates’ Court of Victoria)<\/p>\n

Magistrate Trieu Huynh said Winmar’s victim reported feeling broken and had told the court she could not understand how someone “could be so brutal”.<\/p>\n

“Your actions were unprovoked and came seemingly out of nowhere,” Magistrate Huynh said.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, while I accept that you have made significant steps at rehabilitation, I cannot escape the seriousness of the offending and the impact on the victim.”<\/p>\n

Winmar sat alone in the front row of the court room as the magistrate delivered his sentence.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Huynh accepted Winmar had been impacted by his removal of various footballing accolades, but said he placed “limited weight” on it in sentencing.<\/p>\n

His lawyers immediately appealed the conviction and sentence in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court and Winmar was released on bail on the condition he not contact any of the prosecution’s witnesses.<\/p>\n

Winmar said nothing as he left the court on Friday afternoon. His lawyer, Dermot Dann, refused to comment.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The court released this photo of a broken door handle, which formed part of the prosecution’s evidence.\u00a0 (Supplied: Magistrates’ Court of Victoria)<\/p>\n

Dragged by ponytail<\/p>\n

Magistrate Huynh said he was most concerned about Winmar’s history of “alcohol-fuelled violent offending”.<\/p>\n

In 2019 Winmar was sentenced to a community corrections order<\/a>, including 100 hours of community service, for the drunken assault of a taxi driver.<\/p>\n

Friday’s sentencing followed a three-day hearing in May<\/a> in which the victim described feeling “petrified” and fearing for her life.<\/p>\n

\"Nicky<\/p>\n

Nicky Winmar has been released on bail with conditions he not contact the prosecution’s witnesses. (ABC News: Pat Rocca)<\/p>\n

She told the court Winmar came up “screaming” behind her, grabbing her arm and twisting it, before dragging her by her ponytail and smashing her head against a door.<\/p>\n

Winmar pleaded not guilty during the case, but the magistrate found him guilty of the charges beyond reasonable doubt after hearing evidence from the victim and other witnesses.<\/p>\n

During the previous hearing, the prosecution called for Winmar to be jailed over the attack, noting his prior convictions for assault.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dermot Dann represented Winmar throughout the case. (ABC Central Victoria: Anna McGuinness)<\/p>\n

But Mr Dann KC told the court a community corrections order was appropriate and that jail should be a “last resort”.<\/p>\n

He told the court Winmar struggled with depression, PTSD and alcohol use, and had made a significant contribution in taking a stand against racism.<\/p>\n

Mr Dann said investigations were underway to determine whether Winmar had an acquired brain injury or developed CTE from concussions in his playing career.<\/p>\n

Winmar’s appeal will be heard at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disgraced footballer Nicky Winmar is appealing a six-month jail sentence for assaulting a woman in northern Victoria last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,351490,223612,439532,439530,368751,439531,189318,174826,85,439533],"class_list":["post-871053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-hall-of-fame","tag-nicky-winmar","tag-nicky-winmar-assault-trial","tag-nicky-winmar-sentence","tag-nicky-winmar-statue","tag-nicky-winmar-verdict","tag-optus-stadium","tag-perth-stadium","tag-sports","tag-what-did-nicky-winmar-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871053","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=871053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}