'Appalling': Shell Cove RSA marshal punched drunk patron twice in the face

Jay Dee Camilleri, 23, was working at The Prince on June 3, 2023 when the victim, a 31-year-old man, was asked by security guards to leave at about 11.30pm for being too drunk.

The victim explained to the guards he wanted to tell his friends he had to leave, but was denied this request and was escorted outside.

Camilleri and the victim then had a verbal altercation which escalated as Camilleri pushed the man down the flight of stairs at the venue's entrance.

The victim returned to Camilleri and grabbed onto him so he didn't fall, to which Camilleri then pushed the man three times before punching him in the face.

CCTV cameras captured by-standing security guards restraining the victim by pulling his arms behind his back while Camilleri struck him again in the face, splitting his lip open.

A manager of the venue approached the victim and removed him from the area.

Police met the victim at Wollongong Hospital where they took photographs of his injuries. The man received six stitches to the inside and outside of his lip.

That evening was Camilleri's last shift at the venue. He attended the police station two weeks later and was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The Shell Cove man, who now works as a forklift driver at Bluescope, was flanked by family members at Wollongong Local Court when he confessed to the crime on Wednesday.

Defence lawyer Ted Neaves said Camilleri, who had a clean criminal record before the assault, acknowledged there was no excuse for his behaviour and was "embarrassed and ashamed".

Magistrate Gabriel Fleming said it was a "very serious matter" and expressed her particular concern about the patron being restrained.

"It's akin to kicking someone on the ground ... it's appalling," she said.

"I have no doubt from reading the facts and what goes on in a nightclub that this person might have been highly intoxicated, but it's an abuse of trust.

"You're there as an official."

Camilleri copped an $800 fine and was placed on a 12-month community corrections order, with a condition ordering him to obtain a mental health care plan.