2 weeks Ago By Adelaide Lang
A lifeguard who stars in the reality TV series Bondi Rescue has avoided conviction for putting his hand on a woman’s neck “in a fit of alcoholic rage” and pushing her over. Andrew Reid, known on the hit show as Reidy, faced Hornsby Local Court on Tuesday after pleading not guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of common assault. Prosecutors alleged he bit a woman’s arm, put his hands on her throat, and threw a phone at her with such force that it cut her leg and required surgical glue to heal.
The court was told Mr Reid and the woman had been “wrestling” when he allegedly deliberately bit her upper arm, leaving teeth marks. The lifeguard provided four different explanations, including that he bit her because she elbowed his sternum. Yet one of his explanations - that her arm entered his mouth when she fell on top of him - was dismissed as “physically impossible” by the police prosecutor.
In another alleged incident, the court was told Mr Reid threw a phone at the woman and it struck her in the leg, leaving a “nasty gash” bleeding on her shin. Mr Reid maintained he had either thrown the phone to the woman or thrown it on the ground and it flew into her leg, which the prosecutor noted were “two very different propositions”. “Accidents do happen,” Mr Reid’s barrister Margaret Cunneen SC reminded the court.
The court was told Mr Reid’s counsellor wrote he had lost control of himself during the incident. The counsellor’s notes also revealed Mr Reid disclosed a subsequent confrontation during which, “in a fit of alcoholic rage, he flung his hands around (the woman’s) neck”. The court was told the counsellor recorded the lifeguard as saying “that’s not the kind of man I am” while visibly upset.
“It’s an admission to the offence of common assault,” the police prosecutor told the court. “It’s done to his counsellor ..
. without any form of inducement. It’s an honest retelling of what’s actually occurred.
” Yet Ms Cunneen argued the counsellor had written her notes after the sessions with the lifeguard instead of contemporaneously, which meant some accuracy was lost. She said the incident arose when the woman rushed at Mr Reid to reclaim the phone he took from her and he “guided her” towards the bed with a hand on her neck, but she fell over. “It was very very fleeting,” Ms Cuneen said.
“Andrew Reid is not a person who would deliberately assault a person under any circumstances. He’s not a violent man.” An audio recording was played for the court of a confrontation between Mr Reid and the woman after she entered his room late one night.
“Get out until you f***ing apologise, seriously, I’ll drag you out until you apologise,” the lifeguard can be heard saying in a firm and raised voice. When asked about the audio, Mr Reid’s former Bondi Rescue co-star Quinn Darragh said his friend had been “provoked” and there was a “clear distinction” between shouting and physical violence. Former Home and Away star and current Bondi Rescue lifeguard Ryan Clark agreed that the audio didn’t change his opinion of Mr Reid.
Mr Clark has previously been a White Ribbon ambassador for the prevention of violence against women, and told the court he is “still an advocate for women’s rights”. He said Mr Reid’s threat to drag the woman out of the room was “probably not the best thing to say” but he didn’t think the recording amounted to domestic violence. Mr Clark accused the woman of “manipulating” the situation and said he “wouldn’t believe” allegations Mr Reid had assaulted her.
The police prosecutor said the former White Ribbon ambassador’s testimony was “extremely concerning”. “This is someone who is meant to be supportive in bringing domestic violence issues to light and being compassionate to victims of domestic violence,” he said. “Yet he stated he did not believe that recording was domestic violence.
” The prosecutor submitted the evidence of Mr Reid’s five character witnesses was “rehearsed” and should not be relied upon. Magistrate Daniel Reiss agreed there was a “striking similarity” in the witnesses’ reactions to the audio, which they had all heard before attending court on Tuesday. He accepted their glowing remarks about Mr Reid’s character but noted “people do things out of character when under significant pressure”.
The magistrate noted the audio recording “doesn’t fit with the picture being painted by the accused himself and his witnesses of Mr Reid being ideal in all circumstances”. “Clearly in the audio, he was very angry, very upset ..
. He clearly lost control and he was being very abusive towards the complainant,” Mr Reiss said. “(It’s) really inappropriate and appalling behaviour which doesn’t seem to bother his friends at all.
” Mr Reid’s inability to make obvious concessions about his loss of control undermined his reliability as a witness, the magistrate said. He found the woman had been an “honest, forthright witness”, but said he could not be satisfied that the allegations of biting or throwing the phone were deliberate assaults. Mr Reiss dismissed both counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Yet he found Mr Reid made a “fairly clear admission of assault to the counsellor” during their session followed by a recognition of the fact he acted inappropriately. Pushing the woman’s neck for up to five seconds was “an aggressive act that amounts to common assault”, Mr Reiss determined. He found Mr Reid guilty of the offence without proceeding to a conviction.
Instead, the lifeguard was handed a 12-month good behaviour bond. The police prosecutor had pushed for a conviction, emphasising that Mr Reid had not shown any remorse for his actions. “Domestic violence offences are always serious and unfortunately prevalent in the community,” he said.
Mr Reid will remain subject to a two-year apprehended violence order taken out in the woman’s name..
