Former NRL player Curtis Scott has earned a Wife Beater Tattoo from The Frownlow Medal after being found guilty of domestic violence.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern-day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes; the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015, while NRL star Jarryd Hayne is the most recent recipient.
The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame honours former players and players who received media attention in previous seasons, for similarly scandalous behaviour, and its inductees include Ben Cousins and Julian O’Neill.
The striking tattoo is available to any player who is involved in an incident of violence against women and will be inked on the player’s arms or hands, or whichever limb was used to inflict the damage on the female victim.
Scott was found guilty of four separate charges against the woman, herself an accomplished athlete, and will be sentenced in November of this year.
The former Canberra Raiders and Melbourne Storm player pleaded not guilty to a choking charge, two charges of assault occasioning body harm and one charge of intimidation. The judge decided there was sufficient evidence that Scott assaulted the woman, causing actual bodily harm in the so-called Sylvania (a suburb in southern Sydney) incident in 2018.
The magistrate pointed to evidence that Scott put his hand on the woman’s neck and “launched” her over a lounge into a wall, causing her to skin her arm and sustain an egg-sized lump on her head.
During another incident at Lake Conjola, on the NSW South Coast, the judge was convinced that Scott “charged” at the woman, and that there was an abundance of evidence that Scott made death threats, while rejecting his claims that he only threatened to harm himself.
During the relationship and its break up, Scott also drove a car into a tree. Other charges against him were dismissed.
This is Scott’s first Wife Beater Tattoo, but not his first nomination for Frownlow honours. He was once accused of punching a man several times in a nightclub and causing severe damage to the man’s nose. He also missed a large chunk of the 2020 season after serving a suspension for clashing with police on Australia Day. On that occasion, he was arrested by police who found him asleep under a tree at Moore Park, and claimed he resisted arrest. Scott was in contention to win The Frownlow Medal last year until all of the charges against him were dropped, but he was sacked by the Raiders.
Will the latest incident be enough to earn him a place in The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame this year, and/or a stint behind bars?
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 