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March 29th, 2013 
Liam Jurrah pictured during a break in his court proceedings in Alice Springs earlier this month. Picture: Justin Brierty
Source: adelaidenow
TROUBLED footballer Liam Jurrah will spend the Easter weekend in custody after being charged with four counts of assault in Alice Springs.
The charges come after the footballer’s arrest in Alice Springs when three women were allegedly assaulted at a 24-hour store in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Jurrah, 24, and another man, 32, were arrested.
Without naming Jurrah, Senior Sergeant Darrell Kerr from Alice Springs confirmed that two men arrested over the incident at the store had been charged on Thursday night.
He said a bail application was heard before a magistrate in an over-the-phone hearing today and was refused.
“Police opposed bail due to the seriousness of the charges,” said Snr Sgt Kerr.
The news means Jurrah will be locked up over Easter until the court resumes sitting on Tuesday.
Last week he walked free from the Alice Springs Supreme Court after being acquitted of attacking his cousin with a machete.
Twice this week he has failed to appear in court in South Australia, where he faces separate charges of aggravated assault and drink driving.
Jurrah made his AFL debut in 2009 and played 36 games for Melbourne.
The club delisted him at the end of last season but he has since signed on to play for the Alice Springs South Kangaroos Football Club.
His grandmother, Cecily Granites, said she did not understand why Jurrah had ended up in custody.
“He went over to the 24-hour shop on Gap Road and bought something to eat, like a sandwich,” she said.
“There was a group of (people that) saw Liam going in and when he came out there was a couple of people standing there and they started talking to him in a really angry way.”
Ms Granites said she received a phone call about 4am saying Jurrah was in trouble and that he was in police custody.
Superintendent Brent Warren said police attended the incident after 3am and identified three women who allegedly had been assaulted.
“Police subsequently arrested two men, aged 24 and 32, in relation to the alleged incident,” he said.
In Adelaide yesterday, Magistrate David McLeod said a warrant for Jurrah’s arrest would lie on the file after he failed to appear in Elizabeth Magistrates Court to answer a charge of aggravated assault.
Jurrah’s lawyer told the court her client had stayed in Alice Springs for his grandfather’s funeral, but Mr McLeod said he wanted corroboration the funeral was taking place.
The hearing proceeded without Jurrah, but prosecutors said the charge against him was likely to be withdrawn because the alleged victim had signed a form saying she did not wish to proceed.
Defence lawyer Joanna Caracoussis told the court Jurrah’s grandfather died late last year and the funeral was scheduled for last week but had been postponed.
The funeral had been planned for last Thursday – the day a jury returned its not guilty verdict in Jurrah’s case of alleged assault against cousin Basil Jurrah.
The matter was adjourned to May.
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