A man who peed on a woman at a Spiderbait gig in Melbourne early last year has been sentenced today, charged with disorderly conduct and behaving in an offensive manner.
An unlawful assault charge was dropped.
26-year-old Joel Morrison was found to have urinated on 33-year-old Belle Nolan at 170 Russell in February 2016, during a gig celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary.
He’s been put on a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered to pay $800 to charity.
Back in April this year, appearing at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, Morrison denied he had a slash on Nolan, despite the CCTV footage that clearly shows him being ejected from the venue after the incident.
The footage was released in August last year in an attempt to find the man responsible.
Morrison ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges, apparently hoping to be put on the Court’s diversion program where first-time offenders do not cop a criminal record.
Magistrate Franz Holzer was not having a bar of that, refusing the defence’s application for the program, saying:
“The matters are frankly disgusting.“The last thing [Nolan] would have expected is for the matter we are talking about. It is vile.“It’s horrible and degrading and deserves the strongest condemnation.”
Nolan herself was in favour of the defendant being spared a criminal record, so long as he apologised and completed a course on changing behaviour, neither of which happened. He has however apparently moderated his drinking.
She said:
“I didn’t like the way it made me feel about myself. I’ve always been a strong, independent woman but I found that after this happened it lowered my self-esteem.“I’ve been quite traumatised by it.”
On the evening in question Morrison drank ten tinnies, before whizzing on Nolan at about 10.35pm near the stage. Feeling liquid on her leg, she turned around and saw Morrison smirking and doing up his fly. She screamed, and her friend notified security, who immediately escorted Morrison out of the premises.
Morrison’s defence maintains that he does not remember what he did, and drew attention to the fact that he has since been publicly shamed for his actions.
The band responded fiercely to the allegations on Facebook last year, saying they were “appalled at this awful and disgusting behaviour” and describing Morrison as an “offensive, urinating fuckstick“.
Pro tip: Don’t pee on people without their enthusiastic consent. Definitely don’t piss on people at gigs.
Source: The Age.
Photo: Channel 10.
