Bashing at Colombian Hotel

Bashing at Colombian Hotel

NSW Police are looking for three men responsible for a bashing inside the Colombian Hotel’s gaming room over the Anzac long weekend.

Around 11.30pm, Saturday, Robb and partner Nabil ducked into the Colombian to see if a DJ friend was playing, but as she wasn’t, decided to play the pokies.

Nabil, who is four feet tall, soon came to the attention of three men at a nearby machine who began to taunt him about his height and sexuality.

“They were saying, ‘Look at the homosexual dwarf,’ and pointing their fingers and laughing,” Nabil said.

When they began making fun of him again, Robb asked them to stop and was punched in the face. He fell, connecting with a poker machine, and when he tried to get up, was punched by a second man.

With no one else around, Nabil picked up a stool.

“I was screaming, I was trying to push them away,” Nabil told Sydney Star Observer.

When security arrived they were initially unsure who was at fault, and restrained Nabil.

Security ejected the three men when they became aggressive again.

With the help of a stranger, Nabil moved Robb and got an ice pack from the bar. He said he asked bar staff to call police and an ambulance but claims staff refused to do this.

Nabil and Robb remained in the venue to ensure the men were not waiting for them, and then left with the intention of driving to hospital.

But Robb lost consciousness before walking a block and had to be helped into his car before Nabil could drive him to emergency where they learned he had a fractured jaw and eye socket.

The couple claim the Colombian Hotel resisted giving CCTV footage to police. But a spokesman for the Colombian denied this, saying the venue was co-operating with police.

“At no time did anyone request for the police to be called,” the spokesman said.

“The offer of medical assistance and an ambulance was repeated a number of times and declined. A staff member provided a bag of ice which he requested.

“Police have since been notified and the hotel is assisting fully with their investigation of the incident. CCTV footage, which supports the above, has been requested and supplied to police.”

The spokesman said the Colombian had a zero tolerance policy when it came to violence and is a proud part of the ACON Safe Space program.

“This is a commitment from the … venue to provide assistance at all times to members of the local community.”

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29 responses to “Bashing at Colombian Hotel”

  1. The comments on this blog are sadly correct.

    The bouncing staff at the Columbian are increasingly aggressive, violent and unpleasant toward gay patrons.

    I think the bar should be black listed by the gay community.

  2. I was at the Columbian on Saturday the 1st of may and was in the pokie room with two guys when a guy came up and said hello fagots and said to me is that your bitch. I couldn’t believe it I not quite sure this is really a safe venue for gay people I don’t think I will be going back there.

  3. This is terrible Robb. I hope you are better soon. It seems the Columbian has a history of supporting those that commit violence against people in our community from the post here.

    If a venue tries to cover up such violence, then they are helping people get away with violence. They are just as guilty as those the committed the offense.

  4. Wouldn’t surprise me about the columbian this happening, I was told by a friend who was a bouncer at a club that it’s a last resort to call police or ambulance if an incident happened on their grounds they try and remove those involved off the property and their liability decreases , so I’m guessing if u die in the gutter that’s ur fault not theirs anything could have happened between getting escorted out and the 2 metres to the gutter.

  5. hi Guys & Girls its been overwelming the amout of people have sent me there best wishes and kind words i have only been out for a very short time and the love has been inspiring to say the least. Thank you every single one of you guys and girls Robb xo. And to the Surry Hills Police involved in my case thank you guys the support has been great.

  6. The Columbian is owned by the same group who own the Steyne Hotel in Manly, which is renowned for being one of Sydney’s roughest, most violent venues around. The majority of violence which occurs in Manly happens in the Steyne so it is no wonder similar things occur in the Columbian.

    Clearly the management at the Columbian were trying to cover this up to prevent further government restrictions and lockouts on this venue.

    Not good enough Columbian!

  7. Umm…why the hell were a group of people allowed in an area unsupervised? (the gaming room). Completely unacceptable, from a safe venues point of view.

  8. gay spaces are supposed to be safe zones for the
    GBLT community. If they want to be listed as part of the ACON Safe Space program and be part of the gblt community, then they should do what they can to protect us.

    Most clubs choose who they want to let in and if you have community people, staff and drags on the door who have a better idea of who is gblt or not than these security, then you may help keep the numbers of these thugs down in our venues.
    In melbourne there a gay venues which are aloud to operate as gay only venues, perhaps we need to introduce this here. We still need gay only spaces, there are plenty of mixed venues in sydney. I applaud stonewal’s effort to keep their venue gay and always report violence.

  9. The rumour is that The Columbian is up for sale or at least planning to be tendered, funny how there was a delay in getting the cctv footage, its obvious they will get a better price for it without being on the list and forced to apply the lockout restrictions or potential closure…hard to sell a pub that cant even open or is restricted to certain opening hours….shut the joint down its a dump and attracts undesirables to Oxford St….they as a hotel have a responsible service of alcohol and a duty of care for their patrons – clearly they cant get either right….

  10. Guys – nobody deserves to be assaulted in this manner.

    Yes, this can happen anywhere BUT I have a problem with how the management at the Colombian has dealt with this.

    Its simple – call the police, call an ambulance. Detain the perpetrators until the police arrive. Attend to the victim and ensure they are safe and as compfrotable as possible until an ambulance arrives.

    Geez a department store can manage to hold theives until the police arrive so why couldn’t that have occurred in this instance.

    Instead the victim here walks to his car, collapses on the way and needs help by a passer by. This is madness.

    The colombian must be held accountable for their lack of action.

    I have heard many bad remarks about the behaviour of the bouncers at the Colombian.

    GAY BOYCOTT. There are plenty of other places to drink. Head to Slide, the Beresford, The Oxford……

    Best wishes Robb for a speedy recovery. Take care

  11. steve i here what you are saying in parts i didnt go up to these guys and confront them they were playing poker machine near us we never said anything back to them until it got so bad i just turned to the three guys and ask them to stop saying what they were saying to my partner there reply was to punch me in the face i was not in any way aggressive just asked to be left alone i had know idea they would react like a pack of wild animals anyway the cctv footage will hopefully help find the guys

  12. Robb, I am so sorry to see that this has happened to you, unfortuntaly there is alot of violence on all of the streets in Sydney. However, from what I have read I believe that if Nabil went and got a security guard and reported the matter of these 3 men mocking him the incident would not have occured, there was no need for you to go up to the men and confront them, I understand why you did though but it could have been over before it started, if you want the venues to work with you then you need to work with them by reporting these things early and then the venue can eject the aggressive individuals before it results in assault.
    Also I have read about the gay venues turning straight and these “straight” people coming in and ruining oxford street, I do understand that it is a gay strip, and I would like to see it stay like that but what are the venues going to do to stop straight patrons, you cant just refuse people at the door due to their sexuality, just like you cant refuse someone due to their ethnicity. This is illegal right?
    It is a horrible thing when there is an incident especially when you are involved and are the victim but we cant keep on blaming the venues, these things are just as likely to happen on the streets and often do, the venues are not there to babysit us, we are adults and choose to go out, we just need to act in a safe way and not get involved when someone is acting aggressive, I always believe the best approach is to stay in groups when you are on the street and also to walk away if you think that a problem may occur.

  13. I think the point of the system of reductions in license priviledges for violent venues was to encourage liquor establishments to take a more active role in the management of violence within a venue. The venue should be making it clear through signage and also through the bouncers telling patrons that violence of any form will not be tolerated. They should be ensuring that people who appear to be violent are recorded and kept from entering a venue for a period with a system of increasing penalties for those people that seem to get drunk and allow violence. And venues should be more actively managing customers that are appearing to be intoxicated, and should not be serving such customers.

    That the Columbian seems not to do any of this, and seems to want to stick its head in the sand suggests that they should have their licence curtailed.

    It does become a “the victim says one thing, the venue says another”. I understand that the victim asked the staff to call for an ambulance/polices and nothing was done. The bar is maintaining that they did contact the police and give help as required but that they were not asked to contact anyone outside for assistance.

    I cannot find a reason for the victim to be lying about this situation, but I can think of a major reason for the venue to be overrepresenting how much assistance they were offering – it does not look good for them publicly to be avoiding helping the victim and fear of the victim reporting the incident with the consequent effects on their license could potentially lead them to fall quiet about it in an attempt to sweep it under that carpet. Obviously it is in the venue’s interest to say that it is fully co-operating now that this event has public exposure, but it is possible that they were initially resistant.

    I hope that the CCTV footage provided by the Columbian helps the Police to identify and arrest the perpetrators. If the venue has been complicit and failed to help the victim, then they also need to be held accountable for that. Perhaps a further curbing of the Columbian’s licence would be a good thing.

  14. I think part of the issue is that by having lockout for “violent” venues, you are penalising the venue for looking after their patrons, which leads to incidents like this -it’s no excuse, but it’s a big factor. I’ve heard of so many other incidents at other venues which have been treated in a similar fashion.

    Get rid of lockout, have an active police presence in the streets, and have the community, clubs, and police work together more constructively – instead of this whole systewm where you penalise each other for speaking up.

  15. the columbiam has a rep for these things so its not judging them on one time. its also losing its gay friendly vibe…… try going there for a quiet drink on a sat or sun and the place is like a straight crack den…..noone i know goes there anymore……i agree the offenders are responsible but venues have a duty of care……all they care about these days is profit…… i hope u have a speedy recovery and get to see justice done xoxox

  16. Jo Barwick Robb we are all so sad this happened to you and the kids wanted me to pass on a message take care Jo xxxx ….. Dad we hope you get better soon and that the people that did this get punished we just wanted you to know we are proud of you for who you are and love you heaps …. Matt, Paul, Renee and Hayley xxxxx

  17. Honestly how on earth do you ban these kind of people? You simply cannot expect bouncers to refer to some large poster containing mugshots of these and other morons. The problem here is you have a venue supposedly passing itself of as being gay when all the Columbian cares about is money and not the safety of its gay patrons.

    My suggestion is to ban this venue. The gay community needs to stop supporting these fake gay venues who are after nothing but our money and provide nothing in return ….

  18. Being a regular visitor to Sydney from Christchurch,I have been to the Colombian several times.I have never found this venue to be very caring at all,and I am not surprised that they wouldnt help the Victim.I am sure that its not Gay owned.

  19. Remember though, to begin with Arq, Stonewall, Oxford and Phoenix all had the 2am lockout as they were aparantly “violent venues”. Currently only Stonewall and Colombian have the lockout. Should we find a different location to Sydney altogether!? It is a very unfortunate incident, however the problem is the offenders, not the venues. If people can be banned from driving for breaking rules, they should be banned from going out to pubs if they break the rules. See how quickly the violence stops then!

  20. what makes me think when some people say they are clearly working with the police as if they called the police they never did nore would they have if I hadn’t contact them myself with the help from the Great Nursing staff at St Vincent Hospital. If i had not rang then the police myself I doubt they the colombian would have done a thing even thou a crime had happened in there club. yes they are working with police now but after it was reported they have no choice but too. However i am Glad now the guys who attacked me hopefully will be caught and punished. thats the main thing and these guys should be banded from any gay venue for life.

  21. If this was you that got bashed….So ***SORRY*** :( To have heard that.
    Best Luck,
    Sincerely,
    Efrain

  22. John, not to detract from your plea for calm and rationality.

    This is not one incident; it is the latest incident.

    There is a clear pattern already established, now we as venue patrons and a community need look at possible solutions. One solution: If the venue fails to be a safe location for patrons, then patrons must find a different location which does provide a safe environment.

  23. I don’t think you can just lay the blame at the Colombian – they are clearly working with police on this matter.

    Without taking anything away from the awful events that took place, I think it is important to remember that there are two version of events and the victims are putting theirs forward.

    In their heightened state during the confrontation it is more than likely they have a slightly distorted recollection of what took place …

    I have never had any issue at the Colombian and I see no sense in boycotting any venue based on one event, if for no other reason than not going means the attackers win out.

    Come on people, let common sense rise above, put aside your gut reactions and think about this in a logical and sensible way. It could have been anywhere ….

  24. The Columbian eh…..same venue that told a friend of mine to get out of the premises when he ran inside as he was being bashed on Oxford st in broad daylight for his percieved gayness. His bald head was not because he was following a gay fashion style..he was a straight guy with cancer whos hair had fallen out during chemotheraphy. His wounds never healed and he died of cancer a few months later. Shame on you Columbian for this and the most recent appalling incident.

  25. This is appalling.

    Does anyone know if the Colombian is gay owned? I bet its not.

    I realise its a “he said she said” situation but the victims here have no reason to be lying in this instance.

    Based on the guys injuries I would have suspected that management should have been there with him until an ambulance arrived. Certainly the pub has a duty of care towards its partrons and they seem not to have met that duty in this situation.

    This really saddens me. Best wishes to the victims.

    Goodbye farewell to the Colombian. I will be spending my pink dollars somewhere else and encouraging my friends to do the same.

  26. hey colombian hotel i was the man who helped my poor mate to the car as he was bashed by 3 men in your club , i then went to your security and asked about the incident your guards said nothing had happened and and that they seen my mate walked past the hotel and not enter,,

    guess what the video evidence dissapeeard when the police first asked you then a day and a half later it turned up ,,,, guess whos in alot of trouble you guys are!!! guess whos gonna shut you down …. my statement will

  27. I am more angry at the way the venue treats people and the way their security behave. Gay venues never had violence like this nor did we get treated like this in the past. We have always been protected and supported and this venue should not be part of the gay community. in these dangerous times around that area we need safe spaces more than anything!

    They are so scared of being on the 2am lockout and having violence reported at their venue that they have reacted in this disgusting manner.

    This isn’t the first violence reported there this year either.

    Next time Someone is severely bashed in your venue Colombian, call the police and ambulance automatically. Get someone to make sure the victim gets to the hospital. Have cluey security and not the militia type straight bogan morons you have currently. Don’t hold back on video footage until you realise you can’t get away with it. Stop trying to discount these poor guys experience to save your own image.