How a Brisbane dad took his son to footy and ended up looking like this
Three men have been charged after a parent at a junior rugby league game was left with serious facial injuries during a brawl at a Queensland sports ground.
A supplied image shows 35-year-old Josh Jones at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital after sustaining serious facial injuries. Three men will face court over a brawl at a Queensland sports ground. (AAP Image/Supplied by Ricky Jones)
Two men, aged 36 and 19, were due to appear in court on Wednesday on assault charges relating to the incident at Wynnum, southeast of Brisbane on Sunday.
But after another arrest and a fourth person taken in for questioning, prosecutors asked for the matter to be delayed.
It is expected four men will appear in Wynnum Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Police called to the sports ground about 11.30am on Sunday found Josh Jones, 35, with serious facial injuries and a 59-year-old woman hurt from being knocked over on grandstand stairs.
Initial investigations suggested the first assault was “unprovoked”, police said earlier in a statement.
Jones tried to “remove himself from the confrontation by walking onto the sports ground” but the altercation continued, with more people becoming involved.
Jones’ father Ricki Jones said he was near the goal posts when he heard people behind his son on the grandstand getting increasingly rowdy.
“I saw a big guy that was screaming got up and went and sat with Josh,” he told reporters outside court.
“At first I thought, ‘Man, he’s made a friend’ and then all of a sudden I saw a punch.”
The altercation had moved off the grandstand onto the field by the time Ricki Jones got to his son.
He said his own shirt was ripped off and he was punched in the head.
“It was mayhem,” he added.
Ricki Jones says he was kneeling next to his son as he gained consciousness.
“The first thing he said to me was, ‘Dad, the kids don’t have to see this’,” the father said.
“It just broke my heart.”
Ricki Jones denied it was a “parents’ brawl”, saying all his son wanted to do “was get away”.
He said Josh had multiple fractures and was at home waiting for swelling to subside before any surgery.
A crowdfunding campaign set up to raise money to take the “immediate financial pressure off this family while they heal physically and emotionally” had raised more than $11,500 on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said previously they were working through “a large amount of statements and footage to determine the circumstances of the assault”.
“We are looking at multiple people who were involved in the altercation,” Detective Inspector Stephen Hollands said in a statement.
