Then there was this
Annette Sharp: No tribute for ‘thug’ NRL player Terry Hill from his victims
Tributes flowed for ex-NRL player Terry Hill following his death last week, but no one mentioned the incident that saw him branded a ‘thug’ by a magistrate, writes Annette Sharp.
The tributes for retired rugby league player Terry Hill were unequivocally positive and generous following
his death last week. But notably missing from the gushing tributes were any sentiments from his two ex-wives, Tracey Benson and Kristie Fulton, daughter of league legend Bob Fulton.
In a week in which
violence against women has been a hot topic of discussion, this column feels compelled to recall Hill’s un-manly record.
In 1995, Hill was branded a “thug” by a magistrate who found him guilty of assaulting radio producer Anthony Twiss and schoolteacher Peter Krahe after the two men, upon seeing Hill pulling his first wife Benson’s hair during an argument outside the Woollahra Hotel, intervened.
Both men were rewarded by being knocked to the ground by one of league’s toughest players who was an acknowledged streetfighter (as were his father and grandfather before him) and battered with a series of kicks to the body.
All the while the men claimed Hill shouted: “She’s my f..king sheila. I’ll treat her any f..king way I want.”
Benson stood by the 23-year-old football player, her partner of six years, at the time, but they later separated.
Hill was fined a piffling $1000 and put on a $400 two-year good behaviour bond for his actions.
And the ARL showed its colours and commitment to penalising violent players of the code by overlooking the charges.
Instead of benching Hill, ARL chairman Ken Arthurson rewarded him by sending him on the 1994 Kangaroo Tour of England.
As the campaigning begins anew to penalise violent men, it’s the courage of Twiss and Krahe that should be acknowledged and held up as the example and not the famous footballer the court accused of “thuggery”: Hill.