Attack outside Wollongong’s Grand Hotel

A drunk Horsley pub-goer stripped down to his socks and jocksattacked a man outside the Wollongong’s Grand Hotel.

The attack, captured on CCTV, shows Ethan Stewart-Hoare, get into a fight with a group of men nearby and falling down in all the pushing and shoving. It shows him getting back up and motioning to the main aggressor, Brent Durney, to come at him again.

It shows Durney moving towards Stewart-Hoare, taking a side-step and then kicking him in the head with his right leg, knocking him out cold.

At that point, Austin Sullivan, 27, a friend of Stewart-Hoare, decides to join the fray. He takes off his jumper and shapes up to Thomas Jurkiewicz, another member of Durney’s group.

Then hotel security steps in, separating the fighting men.  Jurkiewicz tells Durney to go, and Durney flees.

The footage then shows , Jurkiewicz and his brother Edward heading along Burelli Street towards MacCabe Park.

At this point, they are being followed by a now shirtless Sullivan, who shouts at them “you killed my mate, he’s dead there you f—king dogs”. And then the CCTV footage shows Sullivan removing his shorts and shoes in the middle of Burelli Street and striding in the brothers’ direction.

The argument dies down and the men return to the footpath.

But moments later the confrontation resumes. Sullivan’s friend grabs Thomas Jurkiewicz in a headlock in an attempt to separate them and Sullivan takes advantage of Jurkiewicz’s momentary incapacitation and punches him several times in the face, fracturing his jaw.

After that, the four men jog back to the front of the hotel where Stewart-Hoare is still lying unconscious on the ground.

Sullivan was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, with a 9-month non-parole period for recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to which he pleaded guilty in Wollongong Local Court last Friday.

Durney  received a 12-month suspended prison sentence for assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the assault on Stewart Hoare.

19th July 2018