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After this story was first published, the criminal charges against Matthew and Tom Coleman were dismissed. There is no longer any suggestion that they committed assault or affray during the incident at the Charles Sturt University bar in 2012.
TWO popular Australian DJs have been charged with assaulting a bouncer during a brawl at the Charles Sturt University bar last year.
Brothers Matthew Coleman, 30, and Tom Coleman, 26 – both from Queensland – appeared yesterday in Bathurst Local Court in relation to an incident during a gig at the university on Thursday, July 19, 2012.
The brothers form the band Bombs Away and boast
milions of views on their YouTube hits Super Soaker and Big Booty B*****s.
They have both pleaded not guilty to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray.
Scott Robert Traynor, who was a bouncer working at the bar on the night of the fight, yesterday gave evidence at the hearing before magistrate Michael Allen.
Mr Traynor, who had worked in security at the university for four years, said there were between 700 and 1000 people at the venue on the night.
He told the hearing that shortly after the band began he saw a young woman on the shoulders of a man and, for safety reasons, he tapped her on the hip and told her to get down.
Mr Traynor said the young woman complied, but one of the DJs on the stage said into the microphone for everybody in the audience “to get on somebody’s shoulders”, followed by “[expletive] security”.
Mr Traynor said he did not want the situation to escalate, so he stood on the wall and continued to look over the auditorium. Then he noticed someone, who he thought was a male, on someone else’s shoulders.
He told the hearing he tried to motion another security guard to tell the man to get down, but when he couldn’t get the security guard’s attention, he approached the person himself.
After addressing the issue, he walked back to the front left side of the stage. He said he then felt liquid on him.
“I proceeded to walk across the front of the stage, three or four metres, and the entire time liquid was falling on me,” Mr Traynor said.
“At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but I looked up on stage and saw one man spraying champagne directly on me.”
Mr Traynor said the liquid, which he presumed was champagne, got into his eyes and stung.
Mr Traynor told the court he motioned to the DJ to stop, by shaking his right index finger, and while he was yelling at the man to “cut it out” the man turned the bottle upside down and emptied it on him.
Mr Traynor said he grabbed the front of the DJ’s shirt, so he could again tell him to stop it, when he felt a blow to the left side of his head. It was the other DJ kicking him in the side of the face.
“I fell backwards into the barricade and covered up,” he said.
Mr Traynor said he was holding the shirt of the DJ at the time and inadvertently pulled the man with him when he fell.
He said his supervisor, Julian Stambe, came to his aid and yelled at him to let go of the DJ’s shirt. As he did, the DJ punched him in the left eye.
Mr Traynor said as he left the area with Mr Stambe, he heard the DJ say on the microphone: “[expletive] security, this is how we roll.”
After the hearing saw video footage taken of the incident, the barrister representing both accused, Greg Scragg, cross-examined Mr Traynor and put it to him that after he grabbed the DJ by the collar, Mr Traynor punched the DJ in the jaw.
Mr Traynor denied this.
“I never threw a punch,” he said.
Mr Scragg then put it to Mr Traynor that he pulled the DJ off the stage because he was angry that champagne had been deliberately poured on him and that he was taking his anger out on the band member.
But Mr Traynor said this wasn’t the case. He said he pulled the DJ down to talk to him and when he “got kicked in the head by the other bloke” he lost his balance and fell, bringing the DJ with him.
The hearing continues before Mr Allen on May 30, 2014.