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Jeff ‘‘Squizzy’’ Taylor suffered horrific facial injuries
in the assault
NRL player walks
free after attack
Squizzy
‘owes his
life’ to
flat head
Julian Troy outside the NT Supreme Court yesterday and, below, during his playing days with Parramatta
By DAVID WOOD
A FORMER NRL player who
knocked a man to the ground
then punched him four times
in the face and kicked him in
the head has been given a
suspended sentence.
Julian Demonde Troy, 40,
formerly a Darwin lawyer
but now living in Sydney,
pleaded guilty to aggravated
assault stemming from a
fight
outside
Parap’s
Bogart’s Bar and Grill with
Darwin carpenter Jeff Taylor in the early hours of
March 26 last year.
Troy played with Cronulla, Parramatta and the
Eastern Suburbs Roosters in
the NRL in the 1990s. He
moved to Darwin and worked as a lawyer with Ward
Kellar from late 2010 until
not long after the incident.
The crown prosecutor said
Troy was asked by bar staff
not to drink outside. Mr Taylor then asked Troy to follow
him down the footpath away
from the pub.
In testimony Troy said he
did so but paused at one moment reconsidering the
move because he thought
there was a ‘‘possibility’’ of a
fight.
He said an argument
broke out and Mr Taylor
punched him once before he
punched him back, causing
Mr Taylor to fall backwards
hitting the back of his head
on the curb of the road.
The prosecution said Troy
then knelt over Mr Taylor on
the road, grabbed his shirt
and punched him four times
in the face before kicking
him in the head.
In a victim impact statement Mr Taylor said he had
not worked since the assault
and had headaches, dizziness, memory loss, balance
problems and night tremors.
Troy said he regretted his
actions and was sorry.
In sentencing, Justice Stephen Southwood said it was
‘‘cowardly, unmanly and excessive’’ but was mitigated
by an early guilty plea, that
he had tried to aid the victim
afterwards and had been of
good character with no prior
offences.
Justice Southwood sentenced him to 18 months in
prison suspended after the
rising of the court for 18
months.
Depression plea fails
Petrol price set to rise
By DAVID WOOD
PETROL prices have edged
higher in the past week, and
motorists can expect further
increases if renewed optimism in global financial markets continues, Commonwealth Securities says.
The latest weekly Australian Institute of Petroleum
fuel price report shows the
national average for unleaded petrol rose by 1.5 cents
per cent litre in the past
week to 137.7 cents.
And Darwin motorists are
AN IMMIGRATION detainee attempting to have
charges against him dropped because of poor mental
health had his application
rejected in Darwin Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Harroon Rashid, who
came to Australia from Burma, was one of three detainees allegedly involved in
the assault of a Serco security guard last year. He is fac-
www.ntnews.com.au
ing one count of aggravated
assault, assault threatening
with firearm or weapon, five
counts of destroying or damaging Commonwealth property and five counts of conduct to cause harm to a
Commonwealth official.
Magistrate Elizabeth Morris said the depression Mr
Rashid had been suffering
had been proven.
But she said that in this instance she did not think the
personal circumstances of
the accused outweighed the
general deterrence of someone having to be dealt with
by the criminal justice
system.
The court heard Rashid
had been in detention since
late 2009 and had his refugee
status accepted.
But he had been denied a
security clearance by ASIO,
and thus was facing either
infinite detention in Australia or being deported to a
third country.
paying almost 20 cents per
litre more.
The metropolitan average
price rose by 1.8 cents per
litre to 136.3 cents, while the
regional average rose by 0.9
cents to 140.5 cents.
CommSec chief economist
Craig James said Singapore
gasoline prices, the benchmark for local prices, had
eased initially but kicked
higher on Friday as optimism returned to equity and
commodity markets.
‘‘The financial bottom line
is that motorists should
expect petrol prices to edge
their way higher if the
positive mood on financial
markets continues,’’ Mr
James said.
‘‘Filling up the car with
petrol is the single biggest
weekly purchase for most
households, so the future
course of petrol prices
will be keenly watched by
any consumer-dependent
business.’’
Tuesday, July 31, 2012. NT NEWS.
5
PUB:
A MAN who was bashed in
Darwin said his doctor told
him that it was only the
shape of his head that had
saved his life as he was
knocked to the kerb.
Jeff ‘‘Squizzy’’ Taylor
spoke outside court
yesterday after former NRL
player and Darwin lawyer
Julian Demonde Troy was
given an 18-month
suspended sentence for
bashing him outside
Bogart’s Bar and Grill in
Parap in March last year.
Troy punched Mr Taylor
in the face four times and
kicked him in the head
while he was knocked to
the kerb and unconscious.
Mr Taylor needed facial
surgery with bone and skin
grafts after he had a
fractured cheek bone,
broken nose, 10 stitches at
the back of his head and
four teeth knocked out.
‘‘I don’t think justice has
been done, these people are
talking about ‘one punch’
and all this violence
around, they said it (his
assault) was due to alcohol,
I’ve been in Parap for 24
years and never seen it so
bad,’’ Mr Taylor said.
‘‘ . . . I love this place, it’s
great but you’ve heard the
people saying how this
place is changing — maybe
it’s changing for the worse,
but maybe we need to do
more about it.
‘‘The doctor at the
hospital said because I’ve
got a flat back head, that
saved my life.
‘‘At the hospital they said
if I didn’t have a flat back
head . . . dead.
‘‘What do you do, die? It’s
up these guys (the courts).’’
He said he was still
seeing a psychologist and
had not worked since the
assault and could not watch
the footage of it.
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