{"id":93837,"date":"2025-10-22T07:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/93837\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:51:09","slug":"upcoming-love-island-star-breaks-silence-on-bar-fight-sentencing-and-admits-he-failed-to-reveal-brawl-to-show-producers-ahead-of-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/93837\/","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming Love Island star breaks silence on bar fight sentencing and admits he failed to reveal brawl to show producers ahead of new season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooper William Benson, who is set to appear in the upcoming season of Love Island Australia<\/a>, has broken his silence on his recent Gold Coast<\/a> bar brawl sentencing.<\/p>\n

The Brisbane<\/a> salesman, 23, pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court after attacking two men during a drunken fight at a karaoke bar in March.<\/p>\n

Now, the soon-to-be reality TV<\/a> star has apologised for his actions and admitted he did not tell Nine producers about the brawl when he was picked for the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I am extremely remorseful and regretful for the incident that occurred at the start of the year,’ he said in a statement this week.<\/p>\n

‘I want to make it clear that I did not tell anyone on the Love Island production team or Channel Nine that this incident had occurred before my involvement in the show and I apologise to them for not doing so.<\/p>\n

‘By way of explanation, I was defending my friend but I accept I went too far. The judge agreed it was provoked and no criminal conviction has been recorded. Despite this, again, I am deeply remorseful for my actions.’<\/p>\n

\"Cooper <\/p>\n

Cooper William Benson, 23, who is set to appear in the upcoming season of Love Island Australia, has broken his silence on his recent Gold Coast bar brawl sentencing<\/p>\n

Benson pleaded guilty to one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, and driving a vehicle not fitted with a prescribed interlock.<\/p>\n

According to The Gold Coast Bulletin<\/a>, the court heard the incident took place on March 23 at Southport’s E Star Karaoke Bar, where Benson had been celebrating a friend’s birthday.<\/p>\n

As Benson and a co-accused were leaving, a 29-year-old man hugging a 25-year-old friend touched the co-accused’s shoulder and neck.<\/p>\n

Benson then approached and shoved the 29-year-old in the chest, forcing him backwards.<\/p>\n

When the 25-year-old tried to calm things down, Benson suddenly punched the older man in the face, propelling him backwards into a karaoke display.<\/p>\n

He then launched another flurry of punches, striking both men in the head and sending one crashing into a desk.<\/p>\n

CCTV footage played in court showed Benson and his co-accused confronting the pair before Benson began throwing punches.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old victim suffered a broken tooth along with cuts and bruising to his face and eyebrow before patrons stepped in and removed Benson from the bar.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Brisbane salesman pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrate Court after attacking two men during a drunken fight at a karaoke bar in March<\/p>\n

Police launched an investigation after the incident was reported on April 23, but struggled to contact Benson.<\/p>\n

An arrest warrant was issued, and the reality TV hopeful was eventually caught on May 1 when highway patrol officers pulled over his black Mercedes in Nerang.<\/p>\n

Checks revealed Benson was supposed to have an interlock device fitted to his car until September 2027.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Nick Crawford told the court his client had been overseas in New Zealand when police attempted to contact him, admitting the attack was a serious lapse in judgment.<\/p>\n

‘It was a complete over-reaction, absolutely,’ Mr Crawford said.<\/p>\n

He told the court that Benson’s actions stemmed from his co-accused’s face being touched by the 29-year-old, saying the men exchanged words before the situation spiralled.<\/p>\n

‘Certainly the whole thing could have ended at that time if my client had walked away,’ he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Crawford added that Benson, who works in sales and charity, had begun an online anger management course and offered to compensate the victims.<\/p>\n

\"Now, <\/p>\n

Now, the soon-to-be reality TV star has apologised for his actions and admitted he did not tell Nine producers about the brawl when he was picked for the show\u00a0<\/p>\n

Magistrate Kerry Magee slammed the attack as ‘extraordinarily improper’, describing it as a ‘sustained assault’.<\/p>\n

‘This is not a one or two or three punch assault,’ she said.<\/p>\n

However, she noted Benson’s youth, clean record and good work ethic before releasing him on a 15-month probation order with no conviction recorded for the assaults.<\/p>\n

He was ordered to pay his victims $1,750 and $250 in compensation, fined $300 for the driving offence, and banned from driving for three months.<\/p>\n

The sentencing came just one day after Channel Nine announced Benson as one of the new contestants entering the villa this year.<\/p>\n

His official show bio describes him as ‘super-fit’, ‘impossible not to notice’ and a ‘handy boxer’.<\/p>\n

‘Cooper is not afraid to say what he thinks and call anyone out if he thinks they are wrong, and that will include his fellow male Islanders,’ the profile reads.<\/p>\n

‘He is strong, stubborn, and has a fiery streak, but is also very loyal and ready to find love.’<\/p>\n

The description ‘handy boxer’ has since been removed from his bio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daily Mail has reached out to Channel Nine for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper William Benson, who is set to appear in the upcoming season of Love Island Australia, has broken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[9689,557,156,62739,69841,111,139,69,437,1766],"class_list":["post-93837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-brisbane","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-gold-coast","tag-love-island-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}