A former rugby league junior player who had cocaine in his pocket while wrestling with security at a nightclub has walked free with a two-year good behaviour bond.
Benjamin Darcy, 29, pleaded guilty in June to charges including assault and possessing drugs at The World Bar in Kings Cross, Sydney.
Magistrate Leanne Robinson accepted his remorse was genuine and acknowledged Darcy had been dealing with a number of emotional issues at the time including ‘the loss of perhaps a promising career in the NRL’ due to injury.
Former rugby league junior, Benjamin Darcy, was pictured outside Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on Tuesday
The former NRL hopeful was charged with occasioning actual bodily harm, prohibited drug possession and failure to leave a licensed premise after he was kicked out of the venue in November 2017.
Magistrate Robinson fined Darcy $300 for the cocaine possession and $200 for failing to leave the nightclub.
She noted the assault victim, venue manager Michael Rowney, was ‘simply going about’ his job.
Court documents state as Darcy was being escorted out, he shoved Mr Rowney ‘with both palms forcefully to his face’ before knocking him to the ground, leaving him with a busted lip and swelling to his left cheek and eye.
Darcy had pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, prohibited drug possession and failure to leave a licensed premise after he was kicked out of The World Bar in Sydney’s Potts Point in November 2017
‘It’s a difficult job, dealing with intoxicated and potentially drug-affected people. He ought not to have been subjected to this behaviour,’ Ms Robinson said.
The ex-Roosters junior had to be pried off the manager by multiple security guards, one of which he also wrestled to the floor.
The ex-league player was ‘continually aggressive and abusive’ when police arrived, and smelled of liquor.
‘He was unable to control the volume of his voice or his emotions,’ the police facts state.
Officers handcuffed and searched Darcy, finding 0.76g of cocaine in his jeans.
Darcy’s lawyer Ahmad Moutasallem said his client’s ‘unfortunate emotional state’ stemmed from injuries suffered in the preceding years, including shoulder surgery in 2016 which ‘spelled the end of his playing days’.
Magistrate Leanne Robinson sympathised with the ex-Roosters junior player and handed him a two-year good behaviour bond
‘Everything in his life up until that point was devoted to becoming that elite rugby league player,’ he said.
‘He was almost there, and his career was cut short.’
Mr Moutasallem said Darcy ‘had his life back in order’ and had been undergoing drug and alcohol counselling.
He had asked the magistrate to consider not recording a conviction, while the prosecution submitted a good behaviour bond was appropriate.