Former AFL player Tony Liberatore will make a $1000 donation to charity after admitting in court to pushing a female pre-poll election worker last year.
Appearing via video link to the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Liberatore was granted diversion, avoiding a criminal record over the incident. Magistrate Bob Kumar ordered three months of good behaviour and that Liberatore make a donation to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Just after 6pm on November 25 during last year’s Victorian election, Liberatore lined up at a pre-poll voting centre when he was advised by the election worker that he had arrived five minutes too late to vote that day. She told him he would need to come back another day.
Liberatore went on to push the woman twice. The woman eventually let him inside to vote in order to de-escalate the incident. She contacted the police about the assault.
The woman was not injured.
At the time, Liberatore told police that the woman had “walked from over there with her accent” and also claimed that she tried to push him.
His lawyers have said that Liberatore accepts the situation was “regrettable”, that it was out of character and he did not have a previous criminal record. Both the prosecutor and defence agreed the case was suitable for diversion.
Liberatore, 57, is a Bronlow medal winner and an icon of the Western Bulldogs club.