An African man who was once tipped to have a bright future in the Australian Football League is behind bars over an alleged Melbourne crime spree.
Gach Nyuon, 29, is accused of intimidating and assaulting a McDonald’s worker in May last year, and stealing from Dandenong Liquorland while on bail for alleged thefts from a 7-Eleven in the same suburb, and a Kmart in Cranbourne Park.
Nyuon, a 205cm-tall former Essendon rookie who came to Australia from Sudan when he was seven, appeared in Dandenong Magistrates Court by video-link from custody on Wednesday where he did not apply for bail, the Herald Sun reported.
Police allege Nyuon was asleep at a McDonald’s in Melbourne’s CBD when a staff member asked him twice to leave, but after the second request stood up, approached the worker and stood over him in an intimidating fashion, court documents state.
Nyuon then allegedly slapped the McDonald’s employee across the nose, but when interviewed by police denied carrying out the assault and claimed he told the alleged victim to “f*ck off”.
The once-promising footballer played alongside AFL stars Jacob Weitering, Jacob Hopper, Darcy Parish and Eric Hipwood after being named in the All-Australian Under 18 side in 2015, and was first pick in Essendon’s rookie draft in the same year.
The fifth of eight children, he lived Ballarat with his family after arriving in Australia, and then moved to Melbourne’s south-east five years later.
In 2016 Nyuon was banned for two games for headbutting an opponent, and fined by his club after an incident involving an Uber driver.
Then in 2020 police released his mugshot after he failed to appear in court on unrelated charges.
Header image: Gach Nyuon (Victoria Police).
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