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Artist News Legal
Phil Rudd back in court over scrap with ‘witness’
By Aly Barchi | Published on Friday 5 December 2014
Former (it’s increasingly looking like) AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd appeared in court again yesterday for breaching the terms of his bail, having had an alleged altercation with an unidentified man, and also with another man thought to be his own bodyguard.
One of Rudd’s lawyers, Craig Tuck, has apparently confirmed – says New Zealand-based site 3News – that the man, whom Rudd approached in a local shop in the NZ town of Tauranga, is acting as a witness in drummer’s ongoing case of threatening to kill and possessing drugs, charges to which he pleaded not guilty earlier this week.
Leo Rojas, a local coffee shop owner who claims to have seen the fracas happening, is reported to have said of Rudd: “I saw him following a taller, bigger guy and trying to punch the guy”, adding that the other man had tried to back away from the drummer, warning him “look, I don’t want to break your face”, and eventually pushing Rudd away.
“[Rudd] literally fell away like a fly”, says Rojas.
A third man, allegedly Rudd’s bodyguard, is said to have then got involved in the confrontation, though only to hold Rudd back, at which point Rudd started “punching and kicking” him. Police later arrived, handcuffed Rudd and took him to court, where a judge placed an additional condition on his bail: that he not take any illegal drugs so as to limit any more “erratic behaviour”.
