The moment a single mother NDIS worker punched a woman in the face in a bar after she “told her Asian friend to leave the country” was captured on CCTV.
Natalie Tenina Stauber was sitting with her friends in the smoking area of a Surfers Paradise bar at around 4am on February 12, before a woman snatched a chair from behind a member of the group, sparking a tense standoff. confrontation.
The woman, unknown to the group, sat down and appeared to engage in a brief verbal exchange with Stauber’s friends, footage of which was played at Southport Magistrates Court.
Stauber was then seen standing between her two friends and the stranger.
The NDIS worker leaned into the still-seated woman’s face and shook a finger as the discussion appeared to become more hostile.
Stauber then stepped back and punched the other woman in the face.
A friend stepped between the two and Stauber backed away from the stranger who continued to feel his cheek, apparently in disbelief.
In court, defense attorney Farshad Sarabi claimed Stauber first confronted the victim after she heard a racial slur directed at her friend.
Natalie Stauber was seen swinging the stranger with a right hook in a CCTV footage played in court.
The magistrate acknowledged the verbal argument that preceded the attack, but recalled that Stauber hitting someone in the face is unacceptable.
He claimed the victim told Stauber’s friend to “get out of the country” after taking the chair from behind her.
“He deliberately pulls the chair away from one of my client’s friends, who is of Asian descent, and just sits there and stares at them before saying some really choice words,” Mr. Sarabi said, according to the Gold Coast Newsletter.
‘The plaintiff actually works in law… (according to) her statement, so I suggest that (she) should know better than to say things like that as she perhaps has some education.’
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest the woman made the comment, only that it was complained about in court.
The court heard Stauber was an NDIS support worker and single mother, who also cared for her own mother.
It was revealed that he had a previous conviction for a similar assault charge.
The NDIS worker was seen arguing with the stranger after a chair was stolen from under her friend of Asian descent.
Stauber also received a sentence for receiving or possessing property obtained by trafficking or supply after she was caught throwing a pillowcase full of cash worth about $71,000 into a laundry dryer with a friend.
That charge was not related to the incident at the bar.
Magistrate Jane Bentley acknowledged that Stauber’s victim did not appear to be in much pain and that some provocation had preceded the attack.
But he said hitting a person in the face was still unacceptable.
Stauber reportedly pleaded guilty to both common assault and the unrelated charge.
The court fined him $2,000 for both offenses.