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Former Seven Network television host Andrew O’Keefe has been charged amid accusations he grabbed a woman by her throat, punched and pushed her, before kicking her to the ground.
The 50-year-old presenter was arrested early on Thursday after getting into an argument with the 38-year-old woman on Tuesday in a Sydney CBD unit, which led to O’Keefe assaulting her, police said.
The former Deal or No Deal host is accused of “grabbing her by the throat, pushing her to the ground and punching her”, police said in a statement.
He also “allegedly assaulted the woman a second time – punching and kicking her – before she left the unit”.
He faces six charges – two of intentionally choking a person, one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and three of common assault.
O’Keefe, a former lawyer and son of former NSW Supreme Court judge Barry O’Keefe, was a founding member of domestic violence charity, the White Ribbon Foundation, where he served as chairman in 2017. The organisation went into liquidation in 2019.
White Ribbon had distanced itself from O’Keefe last year but has not commented on the latest arrest.
O’Keefe has been refused bail and will appear in Sydney’s Central Local Court on Friday.
-with AAP
