EXCLUSIVE
One of sports journalist Paul Kent’s biggest supporters amid his latest brawl scandal may be unmasked as former NRL player turned convicted criminal John Elias.
The Fox Sports commentator was suspended from his role on NRL360 on Sunday after footage showed Kent, 54, allegedly fighting with a younger man outside Rozelle’s upscale venue Totti’s in Sydney’s inner west , Saturday night.
Kent, who had previously been removed from the station for nine months after being accused of assaulting and choking his ex-girlfriend, had not been reinstated as the show’s co-host until February, after being acquitted in court.
On Sunday, a 35-year-old man was charged as police investigations into the incident continue.
Daily Mail Australia can now reveal that Elias was one of five friends who turned up at Kent’s home in Lilyfield, in Sydney’s inner west, on Sunday morning, moments after it emerged the journalist had been suspended.
Former NRL player turned convicted criminal John Elias is pictured outside Paul Kent’s home on Sunday morning.
Elías was one of five friends who went to the sports journalist’s house when it was learned that Kent had been suspended from Fox Sports.
Elías, 60, is a former professional rugby league footballer and coach who played for clubs in Sydney, Brisbane, England and France, during the 1980s and 1990s.
Throughout his career he played for many teams including the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs Magpies, Eastern Suburbs Roosters and Balmain Tigers.
However, he began to live a double life by turning to crime off the field, which led to him being imprisoned several times, including for firearms and drug crimes.
He was jailed in 1995 for nine months after pleading guilty in the New South Wales District Court to two counts of supplying amphetamines and spent four years in prison after a jury found him guilty in 2004 of shooting a man in Leg.
Elias also received a suspended sentence in 2014 after being found guilty of threatening a candy seller by calling him to warn him that “there will be consequences” if Cadbury Schweppes did not make a “good deal” with its associates.
A video clip of what appears to be Paul Kent involved in a fight began circulating on social media on Sunday.
The images, taken outside a pub in Evans Street, Rozelle, shortly after 11pm on Saturday, allegedly show Kent upside down in a manhole.
The former athlete detailed his dark past in his 2010 memoir, Sin Bin: The Untold Story of A True Footy Bad Boy, revealing that he was carrying out armed robberies and working as an understudy for notorious crime boss Danny Karam at the peak of his career. career in football.
Elias, who is now a businessman, is also good friends with Kings Cross nightclub owner John Ibrahim.
A neighbor told Daily Mail Australia that Kent and Elias appeared to be very close friends and Elias is often seen visiting Kent at his Lilyfield home.
Although the pair share a NRL background, it is unclear how Elias and Kent met, but it is understood both men frequent the Sackville Hotel in Rozelle.
Arriving at Kent’s home on Sunday, Elias could be seen scanning the street for suspicious journalists before entering the $2.35 million property, bringing with him a small white paper bag full of supplies.
Four other members of Kent’s entourage showed up at the house a short time later in separate cars.
Elias is shown leaving the Downing Center Local Court in Sydney in November 2011.
Kent, pictured outside court in December 2023, has been suspended from Fox Sports in light of the alleged fight.
Once the men were inside, a sixth man, a doctor, arrived at the house in a black Mercedes. Kent’s friends then accompanied the doctor, who was carrying a stethoscope and a bag full of medical supplies, to the property through a back alley.
Approximately 40 minutes later, one of the men, who had been observed entering the house perfectly well, limped out of the house with a shirt covering his head to hide his face, in what appeared to be an attempt to pretend he was Kent.
He then erected a wooden board in the narrow hallway that runs the length of the property to obscure the view of the rear garage door, which opens to a back alley.
The man then began limping at a glacial pace down the hall toward the reporters, before reaching the halfway point and then returning to the house.
Aware that the strange ploy was a decoy, reporters ran to the back alley, where Kent was seen being carried from the scene in the passenger seat of a friend’s truck.
After Kent left, his followers began to slowly leave the property.
Two friends said Kent was “fine” but declined to comment on what caused the fight.
One of the men joked that Kent had left the house to go to the Garry Owen Hotel, a pub the commentator frequents in Rozelle, for “a drink”.
A colleague (pictured) said Kent was “fine” but a little sore and “fed up with people calling him names”.
A doctor is seen leaving Kent’s property with one of the TV presenter’s friends.
Another friend who visited the house told Daily Mail Australia that Kent was “fine” but was “fed up with being insulted by ‘people on the street’ who had heard about the melee.”
“It’s a little sore,” the man said.
“He would like some privacy.”
On Sunday, police officers attended the scene of the melee which took place on Evans Street at around 11.20pm on Saturday to speak to witnesses and obtain CCTV footage.
A 35-year-old man reported to Balmain police station at around 6.45pm on Sunday before being taken to Newtown police station in the city’s inner west.
He was charged with affray after officers launched an investigation when they learned of the video.
He was granted bail and will appear in court on June 7.
A friend who appeared to pose as an injured Kent (pictured) to help the commentator flee the house through a back alley.
In the clip, Kent can be heard calling the other man a “doghead” before they allegedly get into a physical confrontation that extends across the street from the location.
Footage shows the 54-year-old man allegedly being thrown into a tree and landing headfirst in the gutter before rising from the ground.
Other men could be seen trying to intervene in the alleged confrontation.
In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a spokesperson said: “Fox Sports presenter and News Corp Australia columnist Paul Kent has been stood down pending an immediate investigation.”
Meanwhile, neighbors have revealed that loud parties are frequently held at Kent’s house that last until the early hours of the morning.
One woman told Daily Mail Australia there is always a “revolving door” of people coming in and out of the house, and the noise has become so out of control that she has called the police several times in the past.
“The parties are always very loud and they go on and on,” he said.