Australian rugby league star Greg Bird escaped an eight-month jail term yesterday when a judge quashed his conviction for glassing his girlfriend, describing it as an accident.
Judge Michael Finnane said he believed Bird’s explanation that his American girlfriend, Katie Milligan, lunged at him with a glass that smashed in her face as he defended himself in August last year.
“What Mr Bird did was to grab the wrists of Ms Milligan as she was attempting to [thrust] the glass into his face,” the judge told a Sydney district court.
“He undoubtedly is a very strong man, being a rugby league player ... He engages in a robust sport, but grabbing a wrist is in no sense a hostile act,” he added. “Unfortunately, perhaps because he is stronger than her, her wrist was forced backwards [into her face].”
The former Test and Cronulla Sharks player, who now plays for Super League club Catalans Dragons, was sentenced to a minimum eight months’ jail in June over the incident, which left Milligan with a broken eye socket and face cuts.
Milligan had told the appeal hearing that she had ripped up photos, thrown flowers and then “lunged” at Bird during an argument at his Sydney apartment, blaming drug use for her aggression. Neither could explain how the glass broke, just saying that Milligan fell to the floor clutching her eye.
She said she had urged Bird to blame his roommate Brent Watson, who was later found not to have been at the apartment at the time of the incident.
“I didn’t believe anybody would believe it was an accident — here’s a guy who everyone wants to believe is an aggressive footballer,” she told the court. “I didn’t want his name associated with it in any way.”
Bird, who was dumped by the Sharks after the incident, apologized to Watson after his sentencing. He now lives with Milligan in southern France.
The North Queensland Cowboys and Gold Coast Titans, both from Queensland state, have already expressed interest in signing him for the 2010 NRL season.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB