Kiwi rugby league player Kayleb Minirapa Milne’s assault not linked to brain injury: Judge

Kayleb Milne training with the Melbourne Storm in 2019. Photo / Getty Images

A judge has dismissed a claimed link between a former rugby league player’s sporting brain injury and him repeatedly bashing and choking a woman unconscious.

Kayleb Minirapa Milne, 25, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Tuesday to three counts of choking and four of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Milne was contracted to play for NRL clubs Melbourne and Cronulla in 2018 and 2019 respectively and was drafted to play in the second-tier Queensland Cup.

Crown prosecutor Zachary Kaplan said Milne, as a tall and muscular man, had physically assaulted a much smaller woman multiple times in 2023, causing bruising to her eye, loss of consciousness and perforated eardrums.

Judge Michael Byrne was shown photographs of the young woman’s injuries.

Kaplan said Milne had assaulted the young woman so severely that she jumped out of a moving car and into a stranger’s vehicle to seek help.

“The assaults, in public and private, did not stop until she contacted emergency services,” Kaplan said.

Kayleb Milne training with the Melbourne Storm in 2019. Photo / Getty Images

Kaplan read a statement from the woman to the court in which she said she was changed significantly from a happy and bubbly person to someone who was “hypervigilant” and isolated from family and friends.

“I did not want them to see the injuries on my face and body. I felt a lot of shame and embarrassment,” she said.

The woman said she sincerely hoped that Milne received genuine support “to protect himself and others”.

“I believe in the possibility of change and do not wish to see the offender be incarcerated,” the woman said.

Defence barrister Martin Longhurst said Milne had been affected by domestic violence during his childhood and had sought treatment for suspected chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Longhurst said Milne’s large size at 14-years-old allowed him to play footy against grown men in New Zealand, resulting in him receiving “a number of pretty brutal concussive injuries”.

“It is becoming more and more notorious in contact sports that concussive injuries can lead to impulsiveness and overly aggressive behaviour,” Longhurst said.

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Judge Byrne said there was not enough evidence to show Milne had CTE and that it had a causal link to his offending, but did find he had remorse.

“Horrible is a massive understatement but that is what your conduct was,” Judge Byrne said.

Judge Byrne said he faced a difficult decision as Milne had committed serious offences but sending him back to prison might interrupt his rehabilitation.

Milne was sentenced to four years imprisonment, immediately suspended after the 155 days he has already spent in custody, with a three-year probation order.

Judge Byrne told Milne he should not expect another lenient sentence if he breached his release conditions.

As a New Zealand citizen, Milne is now eligible to be deported due to his convictions and sentence.

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