The upstairs neighbour of a woman allegedly assaulted by former television presenter Andrew O’Keefe said she “avoided” him on the few occasions she saw him.
Nicole Taylor told a court she recognised O’Keefe, 51, from television and the media, and had seen him several times around her apartment building, but not interacted with him.
“I avoided him actually,” she said on Tuesday, the second day of a hearing in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.
O’Keefe faces resisting police, drug possession and domestic violence-related assault charges over an alleged incident at Point Piper in September 2021.
He had six charges relating to an alleged January 2022 incident at his Sydney CBD apartment withdrawn on Monday because the alleged victim, which the prosecution case significantly relied on, has left the country.
Ms Taylor said she heard noises from the apartment below while she was making dinner on September 8, 2021.
“I could hear something was going a bit wrong down there,” she said.
She then encountered O’Keefe, who aggressively shut a door in her face.
Returning to leave a note, Ms Taylor said she was pulled inside the door by her neighbour, who had scratches up the inside of her forearms and across her chest.
The woman was also limping and shaking “like a leaf”, Ms Taylor said.
When she asked about the limp the woman said “that she had been kicked by Andrew”.
During a later debrief in Ms Taylor’s apartment her neighbour also revealed O’Keefe had spat in her face.
Ms Taylor said she walked O’Keefe out of the apartment complex and asked if he was OK.
“He said, ‘what do you think?’,” Ms Taylor said.
Police later found him on the steps of the apartment building.
Constable Tyler Kelly said O’Keefe appeared “agitated”, lying on the ground, holding his hand over his chest, and requesting water.
“All due respect, does that show agitation?” O’Keefe’s lawyer Richard Pontello SC asked on Tuesday.
“It was the way he said it,” Constable Kelly said.
“Isn’t lying down the opposite of agitation?” Mr Pontello asked.
“It was his behaviour not that he was lying on the stairs,” Constable Kelly said.
The court was shown body-worn camera footage from responding police on Monday.
The camera worn by Constable Elissa Major briefly captured her speaking with the woman O’Keefe is accused of assaulting.
Constable Major agreed with Mr Pontello that a second conversation occurred “off-the-record” once she had turned her body-worn camera off.
The woman told her O’Keefe had been on “a bender” and not slept, Constable Major agreed.
Mr Pontello on Monday indicated O’Keefe will plead guilty to one count of contravening an apprehended violence order and one count of possessing a prohibited drug.
O’Keefe previously avoided a domestic violence conviction in June 2021 after charges were dealt with under the NSW Mental Health Act.
He was granted conditional release in May 2022 to attend a rehabilitation centre for up to 12 months to combat his cocaine, ice and cannabis abuse.
On Tuesday afternoon the court closed to take further evidence from a witness.
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-AAP
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