Tourist blames US law for toilet touble
A DRUNK teenage tourist who roughed up two women in a Cairns public loo says he didn't know his limits because he's not allowed to drink at home in California.
A deeply ashamed Ryan Oates, 19, of Fort Bragg, California in the US, was fined $500 in Cairns Magistrates’ Court this week after pleading guilty to causing a public nuisance in the female toilets at the Esplanade Lagoon about 2am on December 4.
The bender happened on his second night in Cairns.
The court heard two women had walked in to find Oates passed out on the floor, but when they woke him to ask him to leave, he became aggressive, grabbing one by the shoulders and shoving her so hard she stumbled back towards the toilet entrance.
When he shoved her again in the chest, her friend came to her aid but he then turned on her, pushing her several times until she fell into a garden bed, scraping her thigh and getting a large painful welt, prosecutor Kate Woodward said.
When police arrived, the women were "crying and very upset," Ms Woodward said.
Magistrate Kerry McFadden told Oates he was lucky he had not been charged with assault.
Outside the court, Oates said he could remember nothing between drinking beer and playing cards with other backpackers at Gilligans then waking up "on a concrete slab" in the watch-house.
"We’re not allowed to drink in California until we’re 21 so I don’t really know my limits," Oates said.
"But I can't believe this. I've never been in trouble. I'm not an angry guy. I'm nice to everyone."
The part-time oceanography student said he had worked two jobs to save $4000 to take his six-week dream holiday to Cairns so he could dive on the Great Barrier Reef.
But he said he would now have to get work here so he had enough money to pay his fine.
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Remorseful: Ryan Oates, 19, was fined $500 for public nuisance.
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