AN Albury hip-hop teacher bashed in Dean Street has urged young people to “step forward” and speak up if they are being bullied.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mistee Royal, 27, spoke to The Border Mail before she had surgery at Wodonga hospital yesterday to re-align her fractured nose.
“I just didn’t think it would come to this,” she said.
Ms Royal said she was at an outside table at Canteen Cuisine in Dean Street about 11am on Thursday last week when she was confronted.
Her friend had gone into the cafe to order and “they got me by myself”.
After she argued with a woman she knew, she was then knocked out by blows from fists and knees.
The attack only ended when a stranger at another table intervened.
“I’m just glad the bloke was there to stop it,” Ms Royal said.
“I remember him yelling: ‘It’s one-on-one, you can’t all hit her’.
“He broke it up.
“I don’t know if they would have stopped if he hadn’t stepped in.”
Ms Royal claimed her skull and nose were fractured.
She agreed to make a statement to police about a long-running dispute.
Police said an Albury woman, 26, had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm in the company of others, affray and common assault.
Another woman, 28, was charged with affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
They were bailed to appear at Albury Local Court on March 17.
Ms Royal, who runs a hip-hop group called Royal Dance Force, said she was no angel.
“I did some silly things, I’m not going to lie about it,” she said.
“But it shouldn’t have come to this.”
She said teenagers told her stories about being bullied and she hoped her story would prompt others to tell authorities.
“I was always told: ‘You’re not to talk to police’, but who else is going to help when it keeps going?” she said.
“Anyone who has been bullied, come forward. A lot go through issues and don’t step forward.
“We’ve got police for a reason.”