Goldie Collins


Goldsmith Collins was an Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy in the VFL.
He made his debut with Fitzroy in 1922 and the following season was the club's best and fairest. His brothers, Harry and Norm both played for Fitzroy.

Clashes with the law

Vexatious litigant

On 27 March 1953, on the basis of his having "instituted 40 litigations in the last five years", Collins was declared a vexatious litigant.

Contempt of court

Later that year, was jailed for four months, by the Supreme Court, for contempt of court, when he assaulted a detective who was attempting "to take him into custody to serve a term of one month imposed for an earlier contempt in writing insulting letters to judges of the court".

Violent behaviour

In April 1954, already in Pentridge Gaol, serving the earlier sentence, and, once again, charged with contempt of court, he put on such an extraordinary display that the judge collapsed. Once the judge had recovered enough to be removed from the court, the Chief Justice, Sir Edmund Herring, was called to the court. Herring adjourned the hearing indefinitely and ordered that Collins be returned to Pentridge. Collins, then, "fought violently with two warders and a court policeman and was hand cuffed by Detective-Sergeant W. W. Mooney, who had joined in to help them".