Man guilty over punching Sydney bouncer

Australian Associated Press

October 19,2015

The victim of a horrific coward punch has revealed he can never forgive his attacker for all the pain he and his family have been put through.

On Monday a Sydney court was shown the CCTV footage showing the moment Sydney investment banker James Ian Longworth punched security guard Fadi "Fred" Taiba in the head because he was denied entry to an inner-city bar.

Mr Taiba suffered a traumatic brain injury and had to have part of his skull removed after Longworth attacked him at Bar 333 on George St in September 2013.

Mr Longworth faces up to 10 years in jail for his actions.

• NSW bouncer has no memory of attack
• Bouncer fights for life after king hit

Longworth was today found not guilty of intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm but a jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

He stayed silent when asked by reporters if he was sorry outside court.

Mr Taiba told 7 News: "I could never forgive him because not just for what he has put me through, but for what he has put my wife through and my kids.

"How are we going to control this?"

After watching her husband lying in a coma for 19 days and then seeing the man who punched him explain his actions in a Sydney court, Danielle Taiba is still left asking "why?".

Speaking after the verdict, Mrs Taiba said she has watched Longworth throughout the trial.

"I have studied you ... your hands, picturing your fists clenched as they were the night you chose to use them as a weapon," she told reporters.

I have sat behind you for the last two weeks. You have shown no fear and no remorse.

"Why is it when you felt sad thinking of your deceased father you decided to king hit my husband and run?"

The crown described the blow as a haymaker, with fellow security guard George Linardos recalling how he heard a loud slapping noise before seeing Mr Taiba fall to the ground.

"I'd never seen anything at all like that before. I was scared," Mr Linardos told the jury.

But Longworth, who admitted throwing the punch, always denied he intended to cause Mr Taiba really serious harm.

The 34-year-old told his trial last week that at the time of the 'incident' he had been grappling with his father's death in June that year.

Longworth explained how he was living in the UK when his father died and never got a chance to say goodbye.

So when on September 5, 2013 he was told a crematorium had lost his father's ashes he was "heartbroken".

• Bail for accused NSW bouncer basher
• Sydney banker described punch as a tap

This was still playing on his mind when the next night he ran into friends at Concourse Bar near Wynyard and had 10 schooners.

When the group went to the nearby Bar 333, Longworth was denied entry.

"Any other night I would probably have just laughed and walked away," Longworth told the jury.

Instead, he protested, and - "overwhelmed" about his dad and knowing his night was over "lashed out".

Longworth, who later described the punch as a tap to police, because he was in disbelief about the "whole situation" and "couldn't believe he had hit someone".

Longworth, who remains on bail, is set to return to court on December 11 for sentencing proceedings.

He and his mother had applied for the CCTV footage of the punch not to be published but it was released to the media on Monday.