Rugby star bashed club bouncers
A RISING rugby union star who beat up two security guards outside Players Showgirls in Surfers Paradise over where to smoke a cigarette has walked from court with a $1000 fine.
Kepueli Fa’u Lokotui, 21, will still be able to travel internationally to play rugby as no conviction was recorded.
The fullback and winger pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court yesterday to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm.
Lokotui is carving out a career in rugby union, representing NSW in the Sevens last year and playing professionally for the Northern Suburbs in Sydney and the Sydney Rays.
The court was told he travelled internationally with rugby, including to Fiji and New Zealand, and was offered a scholarship in America to help establish the sport there.
The scholarship was on hold until the were finalised.
Magistrate Pamela Dowse said Lokotui had a “bright future”.
“Don’t smoke,” she told him. “That’s your big problem, wasn’t it?”
She fined him $1000 and no conviction was recorded.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Matt Brook said the incident started just after 11pm on June 22 when a security guard at Players Showgirls nightclub asked Lokotui and his friend to move further away from the door while smoking.
He said Lokotui then con- court matters fronted one of the security guards, getting into a physical altercation. The fight was broken up but soon after Lokotui and his friend attacked the security guards, who had returned to the door.
Sen-Const Brook said the pair repeatedly punched the guards, leaving them with cuts to the head and ears. Neither was hospitalised. Lokotui’s defence lawyer Jodi Allen, of Buckland Allen Criminal Lawyers, said Lokotui wanted to apologise.
She said he had been asked to write how he felt about the offence.
“He wrote: ‘I feel very shocked and bad and don’t remember any of it. I deeply regret it and would like to apologise to both of them and their families about it’,” she said.
Ms Allen said Lokotui was also disappointed about the example he had set for his younger brother.
She said Lokotui worked part-time as a storeman to help save money and support his mother.