Police have dropped an assault charge against Australian actor Alicia Gardiner as she was slapped with a $500 fine. <\/p>\n
The Offspring star was facing a contested hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court after denying she assaulted a woman while protesting at Parliament House in Melbourne. <\/p>\n
It was previously alleged Gardiner grabbed and twisted the woman\u2019s breast in the afternoon of May 7, 2024.<\/p>\n
Instead, Gardiner pleaded guilty to a charge of failing or refusing to leave the parliamentary precinct after being given a lawful order to do so.<\/p>\n
She was given a $500 fine by magistrate Malcolm Thomas without conviction. <\/p>\n
Gardiner is perhaps best known for her role as Kim Akerholt on Offspring over seven seasons but has had a wide ranging career in film, television and the theatre. <\/p>\n
The criminal case centred around a pro-Palestinian protest in the public gallery of Victoria\u2019s Parliament, with police moving in to clear 10-12 protesters after the speaker ordered the emptying of the gallery. <\/p>\n
It was previously alleged that Gardiner later clashed with two staff members at the door to the legislative chamber about 1.09pm. <\/p>\n
Body-worn camera footage played to the court from police officers captured protesters chanting pro-Palestinian slogans, including \u201cfree free Palestine\u201d and \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d, as they were escorted through the building. <\/p>\n
Earlier in the hearing, a male staff member at Parliament House said he and the female colleague were stationed at the door when a woman wearing blue approached. <\/p>\n
\u201cI believe they wanted to go into the chamber and do their protest,\u201d he told the court. <\/p>\n
He told the court he pushed the woman, who was alleged to have been Gardiner, away and saw her \u201ctussle\u201d with his female colleague. <\/p>\n
The man said seconds later police protective services officers arrived, and he later approached his colleague. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, she looked shaken, shocked. I was shocked as well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The man was quizzed about what he saw of the interaction, saying it \u201clooked like the protester was trying to hold on or grab on\u201d his colleague. <\/p>\n
Through her lawyer, Gardiner had argued any contact between her client and the woman was not deliberate. <\/p>\n
After prosecutors concluded calling witnesses, defence lawyer Angeline Centrone submitted her client had no case to answer on the assault charge, arguing the evidence was insufficient. <\/p>\n
But Mr Thomas disagreed, saying: \u201cIt would be open to conclude there was a deliberate grabbing and twisting, however you want to describe it, of the breast\u201d. <\/p>\n
Following a lunch adjournment, a prosecutor announced he\u2019d been instructed to withdraw the assault charge. No reason for the move was aired in court. <\/p>\n
Instead Gardiner pleaded guilty to a second charge of failing to follow the lawful direction to leave. <\/p>\n
Ms Centrone said her client accepted she didn\u2019t leave when she was told to and conceded Gardiner had attempted to bang on the chamber door twice when she shouldn\u2019t have. <\/p>\n
She told the court her client was a single mum-of-two who had spent the past 30 years in the public eye, and tendered a series of references describing her client as selfless, charitable and of \u201cgreat integrity\u201d. <\/p>\n
The barrister objected to the court releasing body-worn camera footage of the incident to the media, arguing it was \u201cunfair\u201d and may impact her client\u2019s career. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe has suffered more than what most would, and the consequences on her and her career moving forward for this once off incident if footage like that is made available,\u201d Ms Centrone said. <\/p>\n
However Mr Thomas disagreed, finding there was public interest in showing \u201cthe condition of the offence that has been pleaded guilty to\u201d. <\/p>\n
Outside of court, Gardiner said she had always denied she assaulted the woman. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was there to give voice to something important and I will continue to speak up for what I believe in,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have dropped an assault charge against Australian actor Alicia Gardiner as she was slapped with a $500…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[301899,302362,302354,1724,64,282379,63,689,280655,302368,172540,302356,302369,302363,447,9239,134,2456,302358,795,302366,302364,302357,647,185009,187436,302355,677,302353,43016,44037,302367,302365,2812,112667,302370,107077,3725,302359,660,5611,302361,302360],"class_list":{"0":"post-624281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-alicia-gardiner","9":"tag-alleged-breast-twist","10":"tag-angeline-centrone","11":"tag-asia","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-aussie-actor","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","16":"tag-australian-actor","17":"tag-baby-panther","18":"tag-black-cat","19":"tag-bradley-patrick","20":"tag-breast-twist-assault","21":"tag-burma","22":"tag-celebrities","23":"tag-eastern-asia","24":"tag-entertainment","25":"tag-facebook","26":"tag-illegal-wildlife-delivery","27":"tag-inc","28":"tag-khin-thi-khaing","29":"tag-mae-sot","30":"tag-magistrate-malcolm-thomas","31":"tag-melbourne","32":"tag-newswire-court","33":"tag-newswire-news","34":"tag-notorious-scam-hub","35":"tag-oceania","36":"tag-panther-cub","37":"tag-parliament-house","38":"tag-police-officers","39":"tag-protective-services-officers","40":"tag-shopping-mall-carpark","41":"tag-south-eastern-asia","42":"tag-staff-member","43":"tag-tak","44":"tag-television-series","45":"tag-thailand","46":"tag-the-very-latest-news","47":"tag-victoria","48":"tag-vietnam","49":"tag-wildlife-smugglers","50":"tag-worn-camera-footage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}