Another discharge without conviction for a rugby player

Stuff reports:

Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy wrote a character reference helping a promising rugby player to be discharged without conviction for a brutal assault.

Wellington rugby player Losi Filipo assaulting [sic] four people, including two women.

So he bashed two guys and two girls and got off because he is a rugby player. Disgusting.

Morgan, 21, said the assault happened in October about 3 o’clock one morning on Wellington’s Wakefield St.

“We heard footsteps running up behind us and it was three guys looking for a fight. We repeatedly told them we didn’t want to fight and to just let us go to our car which was around the corner.

“And that’s when it started, I don’t remember much but I do remember being smashed on the ground and my head being stomped on.”

So it was unprovoked and brutal.

Morgan said he had a potential contract with Wellington Rugby, but following the assault he was told he could never play rugby again.

He was devastated to see the guy who took away his dream go without punishment.

“We had the same potential and it doesn’t feel right that I’m still dealing with migraines and fatigue, and he is enjoying playing rugby.”

It isn’t right, no.

Police charged Filipo with assault with intent to injure, two counts of male assaults female, and injures with intent to injure following the incident.

However, Newshub said the judge opted to give Filipo a chance despite the charges demanding a starting point of at least one-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.

The judge ruled Filipo should be able to fulfil his potential, saying  “I have to ask myself are the courts in the business of destroying people’s career prospects?”, Newshub reported.

Wrong question. Filipo destroyed his prospects by assaulting for strangers.

Hayden Williams, 22, another of Filipo’s victims, saw the rugby player about a week after the court case while standing outside a bar in Wellington.

“He walked passed me and I asked him if he was still punching girls,” says Williams. “He signalled out to his friends and two of them came over and yelled at me asking for a fight.

“Losi was laughing at me and kept saying he’d been through court. I felt like he was laughing that he’d been through court and got off.”

So unrepentent. He could have apologised to one of his victims.

“His brother was charged with four lesser charges and was convicted. It’s just not right.”

Presumably the brother was not a rugby player.

After the public shaming, the Wellington Rugby Union has terminated his contract.