Ex-rugby star beat boy, 15
A FORMER rugby league star has been spared jail after battering a 15-year-old boy as revenge for “bullying” his son.
Vila Matautia, 48, knocked Cole Olverson unconscious behind a pub in St Helens, Merseyside, in a vicious assault, leaving the teen with a broken nose.
Matautia starred for St Helens, Doncaster and Leigh Centurions in England and played for Samoa at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup.
He admitted repeatedly punching the youngster last December, causing actual bodily harm.
Judge Steven Everett gave him a seven-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
He said there was no direct evidence that the injured teen was bullying Matautia’s son, who was eight at the time.
At Liverpool Crown Court, he told Matautia: “You’re a strong powerful man. He is a 15-year-old boy. It was inevitable he was going to come out the worse and that is what happened.
“You don’t take the law into your own hands, which is what you did.”