Former Channel Seven presenter Andrew O’Keefe has been laid with a further two domestic violence charges, as police allege he assaulted his partner Orly Lavee three times in two weeks.
O’Keefe, a founding member and former chair of domestic violence organisation White Ribbon Australia who was most recently the host of The Chase Australia, was arrested at 3:30am on 31 January and charged with common assault (domestic violence) by police.
In a statement, NSW Police said, at the time: “Just before 1am, officers from Eastern Beaches Police Area Command attended a Randwick unit, after reports a 41-year-old woman had allegedly been assaulted in a domestic violence related incident.
“Following inquiries, police arrested a 49-year-old man nearby about 3.30am. He was taken to Maroubra police station where he was charged with common assault (DV) and granted conditional bail to appear at Waverley Local Court on Thursday, 4 February 2021.”
O’Keefe was then admitted to hospital to receive mental health treatment, where he remained in February as an involuntary inpatient.
Waverley Local Court on Tuesday was told two additional charges had been laid against O’Keefe, relating to another assault at Randwick on the same night as the first, and an earlier assault that occurred at Kangaroo Valley.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, police alleged O’Keefe assaulted his partner, occasioning actual bodily harm, during the second incident at Randwick between 11.56pm on 30 January and 12.16am on 31 January.
He is also charged with common assault over the alleged Kangaroo Valley incident, which police reportedly say unfolded between 6.30am and 6.45am on 20 January.
On Tuesday, O’Keefe did not appear in Waverley Local Court. The court was reportedly expected to hear an application to have his original charge dealt with on mental health grounds.
Magistrate Ross Hudson adjourned the case and said, according to The Herald, that he had received a medical certificate indicating O’Keefe was an inpatient at The Sydney Clinic.
Hudson said the adjournment was to allow facts to be settled before the next mental health application.
According to The Herald, the court previously heard there is a dispute on the facts of the case. If O’Keefe’s mental health application is unsuccessful he will enter a plea of guilty to the original charge.
O’Keefe has not yet entered a plea to the fresh charges.
The matter will return to court on 25 June.
