PUB BRAWL TRIO GUILTY

A SECURITY guard was hospitalised after having his ear bitten and eye gouged during a wild pub brawl in Lara.

The entire incident at the Lara Hotel on November 3 lasted six minutes and involved at least eight people fighting around the pub.

The Geelong Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday the fight was sparked after security asked a drunk patron to leave the venue.

The three men at the centre of the brawl — brothers Jeremy and Jake Corbett-Large, and their friend Alexander Hope-McKeown — pleaded guilty yesterday to assault-related charges for their roles in the incident.

All men are aged in their early 20s and from Geelong.

Police are now pushing for a jail term for Hope-McKeown, who has two prior convictions for similar alcohol-fuelled offending.

At the time of the incident, he was on an alcohol exclusion order that banned him from licensed premises, including the Lara Hotel.

The court heard the incident started about 10.30pm when security at the hotel asked an intoxicated Jeremy Corbett-Large to leave.

He told the guards “Who’s going to make me?” and responded with a volley of punches at one bouncer who tried to remove him from the venue.

It sparked an all-in brawl involving the trio, one bouncer and several bystanders who tried to intervene.

During the fight, the Corbett-Large brothers ganged up on one guard, pinning him to the ground and taking turns at kicking and punching him.

At one stage, Jake CorbettLarge bit the guard’s ear and gouged at his eye.

Hope-McKeown later joined in the brawl, stripping the guard of his shirt and throwing punches at patrons who tried to help the injured bouncer.

Eight police officers were called to the pub but the trio had fled by the time they arrived. The guard was later taken by ambulance to Geelong hospital with injuries to his eye, ear and back, while another patron suffered a cut to his eye and sore ribs.

The incident came two weeks after the three men were present at separate brawls inside Geelong nightclubs.

Jake Corbett-Large’s partner, Kirsten Rowlandson, also appeared in court yesterday where she pleaded guilty to assault-related charges stemming from the nightclub fights on October 21.

In the first altercation at Home House, the mother of two grabbed another woman by the hair and punched her in the face, while Hope-McKeown and Jake Corbett-Large attacked her male friend.

Each of the group’s lawyers told the court their clients were remorseful for their roles in the incidents. The four will be sentenced on March 22.