Wearing black gloves, an Olympic rowing silver medalist stormed into his ex-partner’s house, straddled her in bed, slapped her, and punched a hole in the wall.
The event occurred in southern Tasmania in December 2023, and Simon Burgess, an Australian national athlete who has competed in three Olympics, pled guilty to assault and violating family violence orders.
A court heard that the ex-wife, who was 57 years old, beat Burgess in the head with a glass bowl out of concern for her life.
Even when he began to bleed heavily, he persisted in his “rant” and smacked the woman around eight times.
“Burgess pulled out some paper from his pocket and threatened to choke on it,” prosecutor Andrew Lockley stated during Wednesday’s hearing before the Hobart Magistrates Court.
When the woman said something that Burgess didn’t approve of, he would slap her and keep straddling her.
After arriving in black rubber gloves, he “clenched fist” punched a hole in the wall above the bed.
A passing biker pulled the woman out until the cops came after she fled the house and hailed him down.
A “civil conversation” was all that Burgess was expecting before his arrest at his residence, where he claimed the family violence order had expired.
Despite surveillance footage revealing that he was clearly wearing gloves, he denied doing so in his first interview with police and claimed he failed to see why the woman was afraid of him.
The sentencing hearing for Burgess, whose bail was extended, is scheduled for October.
The seven days he spent in police prison following his arrest were “horrific” for someone with no prior involvement with the legal system, according to his lawyer Philippa Morgan.
According to her, Burgess’s downfall was more dramatic than others’ because of his prominence as one of Australia’s all-time best rowers.
“That is something he has felt very deeply,” stated the woman.
As a coping method, Burgess turned to drinking after struggling with mental health concerns and contemplating suicide in 2021.
Morgan claimed that following his divorce, he was the target of his ex-wife’s family’s animosity and worried that he would end up with nothing but the family property.
After being struck with the bowl, Burgess, who had already pled guilty to most of the counts in January, experienced a loss of memory.
According to Morgan, he reviewed the police interview and then entered guilty pleas.
According to Morgan, Burgess felt terrible guilt for harming the woman and said that his visit to her home had been entitled and self-serving.
“At the time he was angry, sad and felt broken,” according to her.
With the help of a psychologist and psychiatrist, Burgess has cut back on alcohol consumption, completed a “very challenging” Relationships Australia course, and is now much more sober.
Between 1990 and 2003, Burgess competed in ten world rowing championships and won silver at the Olympics in Athens.
