Price accepted Kent had both alcohol use disorder and a major depressive disorder, but said community safety and deterrence meant he was to be dealt with under the law – not mental health legislation.

Kent immediately pleaded guilty.

“Wherever he goes, even this morning, some people approach him and say, ‘good luck, Paul, we understand’; others make outrageous comments,” his lawyer, George Elias, said.

“There’s a herd of reporters outside and in the courtroom. If this was someone else, someone unknown, we wouldn’t be here today.”

Elias said Kent had “punished himself with alcohol” after being charged, and then cleared, of a domestic violence offence.

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Further, Elias said, Kent’s employer News Corp had given him “no help” during the troubled time.

Kent has repeatedly denounced NRL stars for talking about mental health problems in times of crisis.

“Now all the dickheads in the world simply claim their dickhead behaviour is a mental welfare issue and it immediately makes them no longer accountable for their dickhead actions,” Kent wrote in one newspaper column.

In another, he called out the “world of snowflakes” and “mental health warriors”.

Price did not convict Kent, ordering him instead to be released on a two-year good behaviour bond.

He will remain in treatment for his mental health problems, his lawyer assured the court.

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