Nathan Lovett-Murray tweets 'payback' picture after footy match death

From the age.

Nathan Lovett-Murray tweets ‘payback’ picture after footy match death
Date May 14, 2015 - 5:47PM

Rania Spooner, Adam Cooper and Cameron Houston

Retired Essendon footballer Nathan Lovett-Murray has tweeted pictures of himself in Aboriginal tribal paint, promising “payback” for a relative who was allegedly killed at a Heywood football match on the weekend.

Mr Lovett-Murray posted the image to Twitter and Instagram at 4.15am on Thursday with the caption: “Payback will be delivered Unc”. understood to be a reference to Heywood man Darren Bell, who died after an alleged assault on Saturday.

Mr Bell was believed to be the uncle and mentor of Mr Lovett-Murray, who affectionately referred to him as “Unc Bushy” and “Uncle Bushrat”.

“Going to miss you Unc Bushy taken too soon but I know your (sic) in a better place in the dreamtime with your big brother. Payback will be served !!!” Mr Lovett Murray also wrote on social media.

Portland man Steven Saunders, 45, was arrested and charged with one count of manslaughter on Thursday and appeared briefly before Melbourne Magistrates Court, sporting a blackened left eye.

The two men had been watching a South West District match between the local Lions and Portland-based Westerns when Mr Saunders allegedly punched Mr Bell who fell and hit his head on concrete, the court heard.

He died at the scene.

Defence counsel Philip Skehan said the two men were known to each other and had been drinking alcohol from between midday and 5.30pm.

“The deceased had his part to play,” Mr Skehan said.

Mr Saunders had agreed to hand himself into police on Monday.

The following afternoon Mr Lovett-Murray offered a $5000 reward for information on the whereabouts of “this maggot Steven Saunders” and urged any of his nearly-8000 Twitter followers to call police or message him directly.

He increased the offer to $10,000 later in the day.

Mr Lovett-Murray, who retired from the AFL in 2013 and went on to found record label Payback Records, started his career playing football in Heywood.

His manager Peter Jess said Mr Lovett-Murray had been in contact with police regarding his uncle’s death and that the references to “payback” on social media could be taken out of context.

“Payback is a word that Nathan uses not only on his record label but also has it tattooed on his body,” Mr Jess said.

Mr Saunders was released on bail on the condition he reports to police and abides by a huge exclusion zone covering a large portion of western Victoria.

He will face court again in September.

  • with Tammy Mills

Interesting regarding what payback means in indigenous culture.

Putting my ■■■■■■■ war paint on… Tweeting a picture of it at Brayshaw tomorrow! :wink:

He was just plugging his record label, nothing to see here.

I like Nathan-Lovett Murray as a person.

Take a breath, Nat, and think carefully.
Commiserations man.

Take it out on WADA

Shouldn’t tweet after 2am.

Fkn idiot. Great idea to go post it all over social media

Thoughts are with NLM and his family.

Stay safe.

Has he gone full retard?

Seriously, there was a lot if bile in that article a month ago, which made me think that he wasn’t the sort of person I thought he was, and now this.

I guess it’s hard to try and help his community and be a role model without getting embroiled and choosing sides.

And of course I’d probably get emotional and do the same thing if someone harmed one of my kin, but the twitter and the reward is a bit wtf?

Plot … lost

Loves to belt c*nts

Some of the comments above reflect what happens when we outsiders try and impose our views and and interpretations on a culture we don’t truly understand. Payback doesn’t necessarily mean the worse case scenario some might think it is. Without more context, we don’t know how he means that word to be taken, how he defines it. The reward is not so unusual, l don’t have a problem with that, it did what is was supposed to do, expedited the speedy apprehension of the person invloved.

Turn it up CJ. Ray Charles could see he clearly ment vengeance. I love how he tries to say “payback” was taken out of context, then followed up after that by saying 10k reward for info on the bloke

Yeah nathan, im sure you meant “payback” in relation to payback records or a catch up for a cuppa. Lol

Natrat is the nicest bloke i have ever met at essendon. But this was just fkn stupid. If your high profile, you don’t offer 10k rewards for info on a “scumbag” via social media. WTF was he thinking…

StandByLovett-Murray

well we know he can punch.

He believes someone killed his very close family member.

I’m not going to pretend that I know how I would act when faced with that.

But you guys go hard.

The reward part clearly says to call the police or contact him

Now i’m not a criminal mastermind nor a detective but i’d wager most ppl who are out to seek personal vengeance dont tend tend to ask others to inform the police of the blokes location

Nat Rat - Get a good alibi. :wink: