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A Sydney bar owner was found guilty of brutally assaulting two customers and was sentenced to a lifetime ban from the sector.
Before he attacked the two victims on October 13, 2019, John Quinlan, 59, the former co-owner of JD’s Bar and Grill in Cronulla in southern Sydney, had been drinking heavily there.
CCTV film captures Mr. Quinlan shoving and hitting the two victims as they lay in a stairwell, slamming a woman against a brick wall, and stamping on the heads of the two.
![The 15-minute assault was described by liquor and gaming authorities as being done in a 'very vicious, undisciplined way to the point [the victims] were seriously injured and required hospitalisation'](https://i0.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/07/16/07/60332827-11019621-image-m-18_1657951978753.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
The trio had been drinking heavily before the man and woman were carried downstairs, where the assault took place.
John Quinlan (pictured) was sentenced to more than 200 hours of rigorous community service, two two-year orders of apprehended violence against him, and a lifetime ban from the alcohol and gaming industries.
The victims were critically hurt and required hospitalization; the man had face injuries and cracked ribs.
According to Philip Crawford of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, “Mr. Quinlan assaulted in a very nasty, undisciplined manner for 15 minutes to the point they were gravely damaged and required hospitalization” when a fight broke out.
Mr Quinlan was convicted of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Sutherland Local Court and given a two-year Apprehended Personal Violence Order for the victims’ protection.
He was also sentenced to more than 200 hours of intensive community service.
Mr Quinlan was caught out on CCTV (pictured) stomping on a man on the ground in 2019
Details of the case were issued on Saturday by the newly formed NSW Department of Enterprise Investment and Trade, which houses the state’s Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.
The authority has found Mr Quinlan unfit to hold a liquor licence, manage a licensed premises or be the close associate of a licensee.
‘Clearly the community will not tolerate any licensees predisposed to this sort of behaviour and neither will the regulator,’ Mr Crawford said.
Liquor and Gaming chief executive Anthony Keon said the 15-minute assault was a shocking display of violence.
‘He’s out of the industry but a life ban will make sure he doesn’t come back,’ Mr Crawford said.
Between July 2018 and October 2019, Mr Quinlan received eight penalty notices from NSW Police, including six for breaches of the venue’s liquor licence conditions.
He no longer works at or owns JD’s Bar and Grill.
Only two other publicans have faced the same life-ban punishment in the past five years, making it a rare sentence.
