Lions confirm Rich involved in incident

Sporting News Logo

Daniel Rich has been named as the Brisbane Lions player at the centre of an incident involving a wheelchair-bound disabled man on Sunday night.

Reports in News Limited early on Friday indicated that 40-year-old Robert Partridge was verbally abused by Rich before being physically assaulted and tipped out of his wheelchair at a taxi rank.

Partridge's solicitor Adam Magill said a formal complaint was made to the Indooroopilly Criminal Investigation Branch about the incident on Thursday.

However, the Lions said in a media statement that while they take the allegations 'extremely seriously', they claimed Partridge was not subjected to 'unlawful' behaviour by Rich or any of his team-mates and that no 'distress or harm' was intended.

"The club notes significant discrepancies in the versions of events reported to media at various times and those provided to Queensland Police and the club," the statement read.

"The club can confirm that a number of its players were in the area near where the alleged incident took place.

"The club's inquiries, however, have not found any evidence that its players acted in an unlawful manner towards the gentleman concerned.

"The club can confirm a player, Daniel Rich, wheeled the gentleman some metres towards a taxi rank, however, at no stage was this action intended to cause the gentleman any distress or harm.

"At this stage there is no evidence to support other claims made in the media today."

Author(s)