North Queensland rugby league star Robert Lui has admitted assaulting his girlfriend in the days after his former team, Wests Tigers, was eliminated from the 2011 NRL finals.
The 22-year-old pleaded guilty at Burwood Local Court on Wednesday to assault occasioning actual bodily harm on his former partner, Taleah Rae Backo, 22, at North Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west on September 19 last year.
The incident occurred on the Tigers’ “mad Monday” after the team had been defeated by the New Zealand Warriors in a semi-final the previous Friday.
Ms Backo told Burwood Local Court Lui kicked her in the temple and headbutted her on the night of the Tigers’ mad Monday celebrations.
She said Lui entered the apartment via a balcony, pushed her in the chest, then dragged her by her hair to a mattress where he kicked her a number of times.
“He was trying to kick into the sides of me,” she told the court during sentencing submissions before Magistrate Glenn Walsh.
“I was trying to cover myself, that’s when he kicked me in the head.
“I was curled up trying to cover myself.”
In his initial evidence, Lui denied kicking Ms Backo and said he could not remember if he headbutted her.
“I know in my heart I didn’t kick her,” he said.
During cross examination, Lui admitted he’d been drinking before the incident but said that had not affected his memory.
“I do remember because I wasn’t really drunk,” he told the court.
Lui said he admitted headbutting Ms Backo only because he was scared of being “locked up”.
Lui will be sentenced at 2pm (AEDT).
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