The article that appeared on 22 December 2005 after a group of cricketers were attacked outside McDonald’s in Cranbourne.By Sarah Schwager
A MAN has been extradited from New Zealand by two Cranbourne CIU detectives in relation to the brutal bashing of a group of local cricketers more than a year ago.
Eti Muagututia, 21, was extradited to Melbourne last week and remanded in custody on charges including affray and causing serious injury.
The charges relate to an incident outside McDonald’s Cranbourne in December 2005.
Cranbourne Police said on 18 December 2005 a group of Merinda Park Cricket Club players wandered down to the 24-hour McDonald’s on the South Gippsland Highway – which had closed earlier on the advice of police following an earlier incident – for a meal after leaving the club’s end-of-year break-up about 3am.
Police said the cricketers were then set upon by a group of up to 20 men and teenagers outside the restaurant.
Four of the players were rushed to hospital by ambulance with injuries including three broken jaws, a broken nose, compressed cheekbone, eye-socket damage and bruising to the brain.
The attack was witnessed by McDonald’s employees, who were ordered by McDonald’s management to stay inside during the incident.
Last May Cranbourne CIU interviewed two men in New Zealand who had left Australia some time after the incident occurred.
Mr Muagututia was the last of a group of four to be processed and charged.
A former Cranbourne man, Mr Muagututia now lives in New Zealand.
He will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for a committal hearing in May.
