Crowd safety stewards charged over alleged Summernats assault

Two Summernats safety staff who allegedly assaulted a number of patrons at this year’s event have been charged and will face Court later this month.

The alleged assault occurred on 6th January, after a group of men walked into the Summernats cruise route, where only vehicles can enter, and were confronted by security and crowd safety staff.

Report and news footage showed that a brawl then ensued with fighting recorded between patrons and security guards with two crowd safety staff, now alleged to have assaulted several patrons.

The pair, both aged in their 30s, have this week been charged in the Canberra Magistrates Court.

As reported by The Canberra Times, video footage circulated online shows violent confrontation between crowd safety staff and patrons, where punches were thrown.

Federal Police said they reviewed CCTV and mobile phone camera footage and applied for search warrants "in relation to persons of interest related to the assaults".

They used the warrants to access the two staff members’ properties on 9th February and seized several items relating to the incident. After this they arrested the pair

As a result, the 30-year-old will face a total of six charges, including three counts of recklessly threatening to kill a person, two counts of joint commission recklessly inflicting actual bodily harm, and one count of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.

A 33-year-old has been charged with one count of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.

With the car festival having attracted controversy in recent years over patron behaviour, Summernats co-owner Andy Lopez advised that organisers conduct a review of security every year.

Declining to discuss the charges against the pair, Lopez did tell The Canberra Times “when we conduct a review we have a really transparent look at what's happened, the systems that we had in place already to deal with those, and look at whether we implemented those processes as well as we could have done.

"We also look at whether there were external factors we just didn't predict and with the benefit of hindsight we can see better know and use all of that for more effective planning moving forward."

The two crowd safety staff are scheduled to face court on 21st March.

Federal Police are understood to be continuing investigations into assaults at Summernats 2024, with further arrests anticipated.

Crowd management expert Roderick van Gelder addressed the issue of crowd management in Australasian Leisure Management issue 160. Click here to view the issue.

Image credit: SummerNats.