Major twist in case of one-time ABC star Emma Alberici’s daughter as she faces court after being charged with breaking a door at mum’s house
The 19-year-old daughter of television presenter Emma Alberici has been acquitted of breaking down a door at her mother's home, almost a year after she was charged.
Allegra McCauley was the subject of an interim arrest carried out by police to protect her mother, but that application has also been withdrawn.
McCauley had pleaded not guilty to deliberately damaging or destroying “the skirting boards around the door” of Alberici's home in Coogee in Sydney's eastern suburbs at around midday on December 29 last year.
Under the interim restraining order issued after that alleged incident, McCauley was prevented from going within 50 meters of the former ABC reporter's home or workplace.
Allegra McCauley, the 19-year-old daughter of television presenter Emma Alberici, has been cleared of breaking down a door at her mother's home in Sydney's eastern suburbs. McCauley is pictured
McCauley, who has worked as a waitress and barmaid, is one of 53-year-old Alberici's three children with ex-husband Jason McCauley.
Alberici was a foreign correspondent and chief economics correspondent for the national broadcaster, where she also presented Lateline for five years.
She was fired by the ABC in 2020.
Alberici, who has generally kept her personal life private, married 60 Minutes sound recordist McCauley in 2003 and the couple separated in 2016.
Their daughter first faced Waverley Local Court in January when her lawyer entered a not guilty plea to the property crime and indicated she would oppose the AVO application.
On Thursday, McCauley returned to the same court for a hearing, but the charges were dismissed and the AVO application was withdrawn.
Alberici, who was once a reporter for the Nine Network's A Current Affair, became ABC's chief economics correspondent after Lateline was fired in October 2017.
Allegra McCauley was prohibited from coming within 50 meters of her mother Emma Alberici's home or workplace. An application for an apprehended violent crime to protect Alberici (above) was withdrawn
In that role, she wrote a news story for the ABC website in February 2018, which reported that only one of Australia's five major companies was paying tax, as well as a critical analysis piece on the Coalition federal government's proposed corporate tax cuts.
Then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull attacked Alberici in Parliament over the news report, which he described as “one of the most confused and poorly researched articles I have seen on this subject.”
The ABC removed the story and analysis, but both were edited and republished following negotiations between the broadcaster and a lawyer acting on Alberici's behalf.
Supporters of the journalist accused the ABC of bowing to pressure from Turnbull and claimed Alberici was unfairly targeted.
The ABC claimed it found errors or misleading statements in Alberici's story on the corporate tax cuts and found her analysis piece was impartial.
She was dismissed in 2020 and reached a settlement with the ABC after complaining to the Fair Work Commission.
McCauley, one of three children of former ABC journalist and ex-husband Jason McCauley, appeared at Waverley Local Court on Thursday. She is pictured at the same court in January
Alberici responded to news of that settlement in a social media post that referenced then-ABC news director Gaven Morris.
“It is true that the ABC and I reached an agreement yesterday,” she wrote.
'After eighteen years of loyal service, including as one of the country's first foreign mother correspondents (with three children under the age of three), I am no longer employed by them.
“Despite the enormous toll his actions have taken on my mental health, Gaven Morris wanted to call it a severance package, no doubt so he could tell the world I was fired for incompetence or something like that.
'To be clear: I never coveted the camera. I will no longer be on TV and will not accept any role if offered. It's too painful to be in the public eye. To further remove doubt, I have not received an offer from anyone in the media.'
Since then, Alberici has worked in strategy, government relations and communications for financial comparison website Compare the Market and then as a headhunter for recruitment agency Derwent.
Alberici's memoir Rewrite the Story was published in November 2022 and she is a ambassador of the children's cancer organization Camp Quality.