An actor cleared of grabbing a parliament worker’s breast during a protest says she will continue to speak up for what she believes in. <\/p>\n
Alicia Gardiner, known for her roles in the television series Offspring and Deadloch, was originally charged with unlawful assault over the incident at the Victorian parliament on May 7, 2024.<\/p>\n
But prosecutors sensationally withdrew the charge on Wednesday afternoon, midway through a contested hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court.<\/p>\n
Gardiner admitted she was among a group of pro-Palestine protesters who crashed the Victorian treasurer’s budget speech, chanting and holding signs in the public gallery.<\/p>\n
As they were escorted out, it was alleged Gardiner tried to enter the legislative chamber but was stopped by two workers blocking the door. <\/p>\n
Gardiner was accused of pushing one of the workers before grabbing and twisting the woman’s left breast.<\/p>\n
The complainant, who asked not to be named, gave evidence over several hours, telling the court she felt a sharp pain like a knife and was in a state of shock.<\/p>\n
“My view was she broke the girl code and twisted my breast,” the complainant told the court on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
“You don’t do that.”<\/p>\n
The woman told the court Gardiner had stared at her intently before bending her head down and coming at her with her hands up. <\/p>\n
The complainant admitted she put her own hands up to stop Gardiner from entering the legislative chamber.<\/p>\n
“I had my hand on her and then I had the sharp pain,” the complainant told the court. <\/p>\n
Before the lunch break, magistrate Malcolm Thomas noted it would be open for him to conclude there was a grabbing or twisting of the breast.<\/p>\n
But once the parties returned to court at 2pm, the prosecutor applied to withdraw the assault charge.<\/p>\n
He did not give a reason for the withdrawal.<\/p>\n
Gardiner’s lawyer Angeline Centrone said her client would plead guilty to the remaining charge of refusing to leave a parliamentary precinct.<\/p>\n
Centrone told the court Gardiner had always denied the assault allegation but she accepted she did not leave the parliament when told. <\/p>\n
The lawyer noted it was her client’s first time before the court and, given her prior good character, a good behaviour bond or fine without conviction would be appropriate. <\/p>\n
Australian actress Alicia Gardiner was cleared of “breaking girl-code” but still faces AUD$500 fine for role in Palestine protest. (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n
Centrone noted the life of an actor meant finances could be quite lean and Gardiner was relying on her savings.<\/p>\n
Thomas said that sounded similar to the life of a barrister as he fined Gardiner AUD$500 without conviction.<\/p>\n
Outside court, Gardiner told reporters she had spent the past two years denying the assault and police had finally withdrawn the charges.<\/p>\n
“I pled guilty today to the charge of failure to leave the parliamentary precinct,” she read from a statement.<\/p>\n
“I was there to give voice to something important and I will continue to speak up for what I believe in.”<\/p>\n
She refused to take questions as she walked from the court precinct. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An actor cleared of grabbing a parliament worker’s breast during a protest says she will continue to speak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,67,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-392962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}