Watts admits anger issue in assault guilt
EVERY WINTER CODE EVERY GRADE EVERY WINNING TEAM Drug, guns conviction
FORMER NRL bad boy and ex-bikie Anthony Watts claimed he was suffering an “explosive anger disorder” when he repeatedly kneed and kicked a man at a wedding.
His lawyer said the attack started because Watts believed the victim had been talking about him.
Watts pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.
Magistrate Andrew Sinclair sentenced him to three months in prison, to be suspended for two years.
“The attack can be described as unprovoked and even gratuitous,” Mr Sinclair said. “The victim, given your size, was able to escape with relatively minor bruising.”
Mr Sinclair also ordered Watts to pay $5000 in compensation.
Police prosecutor Bob Falconer told the court Watts and Michael Crosby were both guests at a wedding in Mudgeeraba on August 19, 2016.
Mr Crosby was looking for the maid of honour about 8.30pm.
“A witness heard a female scream,” Mr Falconer said.
“The witness saw the defendant continually kneeing the victim to the chest, abdomen and head area.”
Mr Falconer said Mr Crosby was taken to Robina Hospital with severe lacerations.
Watts had attended the wedding with his girlfriend, who was a member of the bridal party.
Outside of court, lawyer Campbell MacCallum said Watts was later diagnosed with an explosive anger disorder.
“In his NRL career and then when he joined motorcycle clubs he was constantly in a state of anxiety and high aggression,” Mr MacCallum said.
“He just always felt angry.” Mr MacCallum said Watts was trying to turn his life around and now lives on a farm outside of Murwillumbah with his partner and their six-month-old daughter.
He travels to the Coast daily where he works as a concreter.
Watts played for Cronulla Sharks, North Queensland Cowboys and the Sydney City Roosters before turning his back on his promising NRL career.
Soon after he fell into a life of crime, moving in and out of jail. He previously had ties with the notorious Finks and Mongols bikie gangs.
Watts spent eight months in prison in NSW in 2016 and 2017 after assaulting an elderly man.
Defence barrister Tony Kimmins, instructed by Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers, told the court when Watts was released in June 2017 he was ordered to perform eight hours community service a week.
“He worked at the Tweed Heads rubbish dump every week for 12 months,” Mr Kimmins said. He said Watts was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the wedding attack.
“It bears a haunting similarity to the offences in NSW,” Mr Kimmins said.
“He believed the complainant had been talking about him during the course of the wedding.”
Watts has two months to pay the $5000 in compensation. A GOLD Coast man found with books explaining how to make the drug ice and a number of guns in his Helensvale home has a criminal history “like an episode of Breaking Bad”, a court has heard.
Anthony Francis Dorozario, 37, pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday to four counts of possessing a weapon and one count of possessing instructions for producing dangerous drugs.
Magistrate Andrew Sinclair ordered Dorozario be convicted and not further punished.
He said Dorozario had already spent six months in prison for weapons matters and was charged with the additional offences after he was sentenced.
“His criminal history looks like an episode of Breaking Bad,” Mr Sinclair said.