The Lookout: Bouncer brothers Enver and Nezir Ibrahimovic sentenced for brutal Scarborough pub assault

Two Bosnian refugees who bashed a patron at a Scarborough pub while working as bouncers have been spared jail time after the magistrate took into account their childhood trauma. Nezir Ibrahimovic, 32, and his brother Enver Ibrahimovic, 38, were security guards at the popular Lookout Bar and Bites in Scarborough when they pinned a drunk patron to the floor and punched and kicked him in the head. When his two female friends tried to intervene and film the assault Nevir grabbed them in turn by the throat and pushed them away causing one woman to fall and hit her head. The assault occurred while the brothers were attempting to evict the patron Nathan Kidd, 39, from the premises after he was kicking and sliding through water spilled on the dance floor. The prosecuting sergeant told the court that while the brothers were physically escorting Mr Kidd out “a scuffle ensued” and he was “taken to the floor” The court heard Kidd was lying on his back trying to protect his face while Enver punched him with “three blows aimed at the head”. Both men pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm against Mr Kidd which carries a maximum sentence in the magistrates court of two years in prison. Nezir also pleaded guilty to common assault against the women which carries an 18-month term. Magistrate Belinda Coleman sentenced the brothers on Tuesday saying that when she first saw “the violence” of the footage she had formed the view that only a term of imprisonment would be sufficient. However, Ms Coleman said after receiving submissions from their lawyer Callum Parker outlining their war-time trauma she had, “formed a different view.” The court heard the brothers grew up in a village near the Serbian border which was “the first to be attacked in the war”. “You fled and had to hide in the woods and both sets of grandparents were murdered in what I could only imagine to be unspeakable circumstances,” Ms Coleman said. The family managed to flee to Switzerland however the brothers’ father stayed behind to fight in the army, with no one knowing if he was alive or dead for three years. The father survived and the family eventually moved to Perth. Magistrate Coleman said although the attack on Mr Kidd was “abhorrent” and “chilling” involving a “flurry of punches” to the head she found that their childhood trauma enacted the Bugmy Principle handed down by the High Court. The Bugmy decision allows judicial officers to take into account a person’s extreme trauma and disadvantage in childhood to reduce their moral culpability. “I accept that you were both under extreme pressure at the time when this assault occurred and this was completely and utterly out of character,” she said. “Each of you in my view simply snapped and took things several steps too far.” She noted that since being charged both brothers had received therapy to deal with their childhood trauma and were talking about the war for the first time. She also noted that there was no victim impact statement provided by Mr Kidd but that he, “didn’t deserve what had occurred and likely also now had “trauma attached to the incident.” The brothers were sentenced to a 12-month intensive supervision order for their assault on Mr Kidd and were fined $500 for each assault on the two women. Nezir is still facing a further charge of stealing one of the women’s phones as she tried to film the assault. He has not entered a plea to that charge and the case will return to court for trial next month.