Mohamed Buram, Ayoub Abdulrahman and Michael Nous: Three men admit brutal attack on DJ Darrien ‘Dazz’ Fisher

Three Melbourne men have admitted their roles in the brutal bashing of a DJ just minutes after he left a club on New Year’s Day. Darrien Fisher, then 22, was set upon while returning to his car shortly after 3am on January 1, 2023. Performing under the stage name DJ Dazz, Mr Fisher had finished a set at Jacksons Hotel in the ritzy suburb of Toorak when he stumbled on two young men sitting on the bonnet of his White Jeep Patriot. He asked the men, “Do you guys mind getting off my car” and was met with the response, “What do you think we are going to do to this car?” An argument ensued and punches were thrown his way as Mr Fisher heard one man calling him a dog. In the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday, prosecutor Simon Tan said Mr Fisher was punched, kicked and stomped unconscious in a sustained and brutal attack. Mr Tan said at one point Sharni Conroy-Green, 20, who was with Mr Fisher, threw herself onto the limp man to shield him and was also struck by blows. Within the hour, four men had been arrested over the attack and Mr Fisher lie in a critical condition at The Alfred hospital in an induced coma with an intracranial pressure monitor inserted into his brain. Mr Tan told the court that Mr Fisher sustained a traumatic brain injury, a fractured spine, bruising, scarring and emotional trauma from the attack. On Wednesday, Mohamed Buram, 22, Ayoub Abdulrahman, 20, and Michael Nous, 21, each pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, affray and common assault over the incident during a plea hearing. Lawyers for each of the men told the court it was accepted the offending was a serious example of alcohol-fuelled violence by young men. The court was told there was some suggestion from one of the offenders that Mr Fisher threw the first punch, but the prosecution case was put on the grounds the attack was a severe over-reaction if so. Anthony Pyne, for Abdulrahman, told the court this was his client’s first brush with the law and he had not reoffended in the two years since. He said Abdulrahman was supported by his loving family and was hoping to soon enter a training course, calling on Judge John Kelly to not send him back to prison where he’d spent 61 days on remand. “This was unplanned, ill-considered, brash and reflects a lack of judgment and self-control,” he said. Jack Cleveland, representing Buram, argued his client’s youth, family support and efforts to rehabilitate while on bail should lead to a sentence that avoided him returning to custody. The court was told Buram had spent 27 days on remand before being granted bail. Nous’s lawyer, Ffyona Livingstone Clark, told the court that her client had spent 419 days in custody after having his bail revoked. Calling for time served and a community corrections order, she took Judge Kelly through details of his difficult childhood and history of trauma. “Last conference he said ‘I need to do something’ but he’s a young person with limited coping skills,” Ms Livingstone Clark said. Judge Kelly adjourned sentencing until the end of March and said each of the men would be assessed for a community corrections order. But he warned they should come to court on that date expecting they could be sent to prison and said he was troubled by how little time Abdulrahman and Buram had spent in custody. “I am troubled by this, the offending is a serious example of this type,” he said. “You cant, as a group, attack a man prone on the ground, kick him while he’s defencelessness, without attracting condign punishment.”