The teen who gatecrashed a Perth music festival and later kicked a security guard in the head as he dealt with another gatecrasher on the ground has been sentenced to eight months jail and banned from attending music festivals for two years upon release.
As Tone Deaf reported in February, Martin John Fulton was arrested shortly after a video of him kicking 56-year-old security guard Michael Rigby as he attempted to restrain another fence-jumper at the Good Life music festival in Claremont surfaced online.
Fulton was due to be sentenced last month but was instead remanded in custody after the court heard he was overseas when a pre-sentence report was to be prepared, a breach of his bail terms. The judge ordered Fulton to remain behind bars until his next court appearance.
Now Seven News reports that Fulton will serve an eight-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and trespassing. Fulton also admitted to a separate stealing offence after he took a carton of beer from a Perth liquor store in April.
Seven News reports Fulton’s lawyer told the court how Fulton, who’d turned 18 eight days prior to the under-18s festival, gatecrashed the event as he had underage friends who were attending and had consumed alcohol before entering.
Fulton claimed he attacked Mr Rigby after he saw the security guard wrestling another fence-jumper, allegedly pressing his forearm against the throat of the young teen. “This was not simply a senseless attack – it was a response to something,” the lawyer said.
However, an associate of Rigby’s claimed that Fulton attended the festival intending to harm a security guard. “It was a malicious act that he purposely intended to do – he admitted [on Facebook] that he was going to go there to attack security,” fellow guard Shane Poulton told WA Today.
