By Sarah McPhee
Former television presenter Andrew O’Keefe has lost an appeal against his convictions for domestic violence after a judge found he has a tendency to spit at the woman in a “low, demeaning act” and that her injuries were consistent with being kicked, pushed and scratched.
“Obviously, I’m very disappointed,” O’Keefe said outside Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Monday.
Andrew O’Keefe leaves court after losing an appeal against his domestic violence convictions.Credit: Steven Siewert
O’Keefe was found guilty by a magistrate in January of common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and breaching an apprehended violence order after a “violent and degrading” incident against a woman inside a unit in Sydney’s east in September 2021.
Prosecutors had alleged O’Keefe pushed the woman into a doorway, punched her, caused her to fall on the ground, kicked her thigh leaving bruising, used his nails to scratch her chest, and made a spitting motion.
The 52-year-old former Seven Network host was sentenced to multiple community corrections orders spanning between 12 and 18 months. He denied assaulting the woman, claiming her injuries were self-inflicted, and launched an appeal against his convictions.
O’Keefe claimed the pair argued after the woman alleged he made a derogatory remark about her child, which he denied. He claimed she blocked the door and latched onto him and that he had fallen on top of her on the ground.
Delivering his judgment on the appeal, Judge John Pickering was satisfied the woman had been truthful about O’Keefe’s assault upon her and that her injuries were “consistent” with being kicked, pushed and scratched.
“I do not in any way think the complainant just evilly made this up,” the judge said.
“The neighbour observed the injury on her chest immediately. The bruising itself is also consistent with the injuries that she said were occurring.”
During the argument, O’Keefe is alleged to have said to the woman: “Nice acting, I barely touched you.”
O’Keefe arriving at court on Monday.Credit: Steven Siewert
The court heard the complainant called an ambulance to the scene due to O’Keefe’s own health episode. It was then he claimed to emergency services the woman’s injuries were self-inflicted. Pickering said O’Keefe was “savvy to the knowledge that he is going to have to provide an explanation” for the woman’s wounds.
“It was just simply his aspect of already turning the decision to blame her,” the judge said.
Citing an earlier incident involving the woman in January 2021, during which the woman was assaulted and spat on, Pickering found O’Keefe has a tendency to act in a way that he “cannot control himself”.
“His admission that he spat on her in that incident in January in a fashion that was not consistent with self-defence, and indeed, quite frankly is a quite aggressive action to deliberately spit in someone’s face and then into their eye, is really, on balance, reflective of someone who is particularly aggressive,” the judge said.
“His tendency is to spit, his tendency is to have this low, demeaning act towards her.”
The judge acknowledged the September 2021 incident did not involve an allegation of actual spittle.
O’Keefe, wearing a beige suit and brown loafers, sighed in court and shook his head as the judgment was delivered.
O’Keefe also appealed against a separate incident after he was found guilty of possessing 1.6 grams of the prohibited drug mephedrone, also known as the party drug “meow meow”, and was fined $500.
A friend previously gave evidence he had left the drug at O’Keefe’s apartment during a pre-Christmas party.
The judge found there was reasonable doubt as to whether O’Keefe ever possessed the drug, and the magistrate should have had a reasonable doubt about the charge. He upheld the appeal and quashed that conviction.
Pickering also said O’Keefe’s behaviour at the time of his arrest, captured on police bodyworn footage released by the court, was “utterly irrelevant” to the consideration of his appeal as he had been acquitted by the magistrate of resisting arrest, and it was “completely separate” to the domestic violence allegations.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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