AFR columnist Aaron Patrick defends kicking dog outside Chemist Warehouse on Sydney’s Oxford Street

An award-winning newspaper columnist was captured on body-worn police camera footage describing the moment he kicked a dog he said attacked him on a busy city street.

Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick claimed he feared for his safety when he put the boot in the pet outside a Chemist Warehouse in Sydney’s inner city of Darlinghurst.

The 52-year-old has pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges on November 27, 2021 and has hired prominent lawyer Bryan Wrench to represent him.

Video of police speaking to Patrick after his encounter with the dog Rosie – described as a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier – was shown at Downing Center Local Court on Thursday.

It started with Senior Constable Mathew Clarkson telling Patrick that he had been arrested for animal cruelty and fighting while standing outside the Chemist Warehouse on the corner of Oxford Street and Riley Street.

Police allege that Patrick hit Rosie in the ribs with his shin and then kicked her face while they were both on the east side of Riley Street at 6:18 p.m.

Patrick was then chased by the dog’s owner, Caleb Harrower, and another man across the road to Chemist Warehouse, where he turned and swung his right foot against Rosie’s head.

“I walked over here,” he told Senior Constable Clarkson. “And this dog came to me and ran to me.

“It was a big dog and I was afraid of what the dog would do to me, so I kicked the dog to try and get it away from me.

“But it was in self-defense because I was afraid for my safety.”

Patrick agreed that Rosie was on a leash, but claimed that Mr Harrower, who runs a tattoo studio named after his pet in Surry Hills, had lashed out in an attempt to hit him.

“I didn’t think that person controlled the dog,” he told Senior Constable Clarkson. “I was genuinely afraid for my safety and I kicked the dog just to get it away from me.

“If you’re going to charge me with animal cruelty, I think it’s right that you charge him with assault.”

Senior Constable Clarkson then told Patrick ‘I’d probably try to punch you in the face too if you kicked my dog’.

When asked by Mr Wrench if that was an inappropriate thing to say, Senior Constable Clarkson initially replied ‘no comment’ and then said ‘probably professional, yes – inappropriate, yes’.

Before being taken into custody, Patrick said he had never been arrested before.

“Are you seriously going to handcuff me for kicking a dog?” he asked Senior Constable Clarkson, who did.

Mr Harrower was not charged with assault and Patrick was not charged with assault when he was taken to Surry Hills Police Station.

Under cross-examination, Senior Constable Clarkson confirmed that Rosie suffered no injuries as a result of her encounter with Patrick.

When Mr. Wrench asked the officer if he had done any research to determine Rosie’s race, District Attorney Sergeant Jas Poonia objected.

“If it’s a Chihuahua compared to a Staffy cross, there’s a difference in how you handle those dogs,” Mr Wrench said.

Sergeant Poonia said police relied on each of the three alleged contacts between Patrick and Rosie to support the animal cruelty charge against him.

“It is a set of stairs that is an act of cruelty,” he told Magistrate Rana Daher. “Each of these individual kicks are acts of cruelty. We say it’s the whole series.’

Mr. Wrench told Mrs. Daher that it was for the prosecution to prove that what Patrick did was unreasonable, unnecessary or unwarranted.

“It is completely denied that Mr Patrick committed an act that was in any way cruel as defined by the legislation,” he said.

The case was delayed for several months when an audio-visual link between the court and Mr Harrower, who was in New York, failed to work.

The journalist appeared on the court’s list under his full name, Aaron Odysseus Patrick. He has used the byline A. Odysseus Patrick when writing for foreign publications.

Odysseus is a legendary Greek king known for his intellect, guile and versatility and the hero of Homer’s epic work The Odyssey.

Patrick is billed as the ‘senior correspondent’ for the AFR, writing about politics and business from the paper’s newsroom in Sydney.

He previously wrote for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, having begun his journalism career at Melbourne’s Herald-Sun.

Patrick not only wrote for the Nine newspaper, but also wrote the book ‘Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party’s Civil War’ which came out last year.

He has also published works on the previous Morison government, the demise of the Labor Party after the Rudd-Gillard era and the unraveling of Tony Abbott’s government.