Leeds: Professional rugby league player fined for affray

A professional rugby league player has been fined £1,000 after admitting his part in a fight with door staff at a city centre Wetherspoon pub.

Lochlan McGill, 24, who is from Leeds but now lives in Australia, pleaded guilty to the affray along with co-defendants Daniel Lockwood, 24, and Dylan Murphy, also 24.

The trio ended up in a brawl with security staff at Beckett’s Bank in Leeds in September 2022.

Sentencing them at Leeds Crown Court, His Honour Judge Neil Clark KC said it was likely their actions were caused “by having too much to drink”.

Prosecutor Gareth Henderson-Moore told the court the incident took place at about 17:30 BST on 24 September 2022.

The altercation involved “violence with door staff, grabbing, pushing and shoving, pulling each other to the ground and some blows,” he added.

A member of the pub’s security team needed hospital treatment following the fight, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement, he said he was not badly hurt, but claimed the incident had a “psychological effect” on him.

“There is no reason he should have to spend three hours in hospital because of people who probably wouldn’t behave like this if they hadn’t drunk so much,” said Judge Clarke.

McGill played for the Bradford Bulls academy before spells with Hunslet, the Bramley Buffaloes and, more recently, the Tumut Blues in New South Wales.

His solicitor Shufqat Khan told the court his client played rugby league professionally alongside working as a scaffolder, earning in the region of £2,000 a month.

In mitigation, Mr Khan said McGill, from Bramley, had “thought his friend [Murphy] was going to get attacked”.

He “restrained the door man”, but “doesn’t use any violence beyond that”.

Lockwood’s solicitor, Glenn Parsons, said his client was “ashamed of his behaviour”, while the court heard Murphy had pleaded guilty to the offence at the first possible opportunity.

Judge Clarke said all three men were “of good character” with “great futures”.

“I accept it is out of character and I accept you are all sorry for it,” he added.

“You shouldn’t have behaved in that way and none of you normally would.”

Self-employed electrician Murphy, of Rossefield Parade in Bramley, was given 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay the victim £200 in compensation.

Lockwood, a painter and decorator of Green Hill Crescent in Wortley, was given a two-month curfew ordering him to be at home between the hours of 19:00 and 05:00 and told he must also pay £200 to the victim.

McGill was also ordered to pay £200 in compensation to the victim.