Aaron Patrick AFR columnist ‘kicked a dog’ outside Colombian Hotel and chased to Chemist Warehouse
>
Newspaper columnist and author Aaron Patrick was chased down a Sydney street after allegedly kicking a dog outside a pub
An award-winning newspaper columnist and author was chased on foot for a block on a busy Sydney street after allegedly kicking a dog outside an inner-city hotel.
Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick has claimed he feared for his safety after meeting three strangers near the Colombian Hotel in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.
Patrick had been walking past the pub when he got into an altercation with a dog owner and another man and woman, all three of whom were friends.
The dog, named Rosie, has been described as a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
What happened next will be determined at a hearing next year, but a court heard further allegations Wednesday as police challenged a subpoena from Patrick.
The 52-year-old had looked up the criminal records of the dog owner and his companions, as well as all communications between the police and a media outlet.
Patrick especially wanted to know whether the three witnesses had been convicted of crimes of dishonesty, violence or intimidation.
Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick has claimed he feared for his safety after meeting three strangers near the Colombian Hotel in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. He is accused of kicking a dog described as a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier
After allegedly kicking a dog named Rosie outside a pub, Patrick was chased down Oxford Street by the animal’s owner and his friend until they stopped him at this pharmacy warehouse on the corner of Riley Street.
The local Downing Center court heard that the Daily Telegraph had published a story on Aug. 23 revealing that Patrick had been charged with animal cruelty nine months after the event.
Patrick’s attorney Trudie Cameron indicated the article contained information not publicly available at the time and questioned whether it had been provided by police to tarnish her client’s reputation.
Patrick is announced as the senior correspondent for the AFR, where he writes about politics and business from the Sydney editorial office.
He previously wrote for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, after starting his journalism career at Melbourne’s Herald-Sun.
The journalist appeared on the court 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, cunning and versatility and the hero of Homer’s epic work The Odyssey.
The original Daily Telegraph story reported that Patrick had been accused of kicking a dog on Oxford Street outside a hotel on the evening of Saturday, November 27.
Patrick, 52, a senior correspondent with the Australian Financial Review, was charged with animal cruelty after allegedly kicking a dog. Patrick (above) has pleaded innocent
On Wednesday, it was announced that the collision occurred in broad daylight around 3 p.m.
“The man was chased into a nearby business where he was stopped by two men,” a police spokeswoman said.
Officers from Surry Hills Police Area Command were present and spoke to a 51-year-old man.
The journalist appears on the court list under his full name, Aaron Odysseus Patrick. Odysseus was a legendary Greek king (above)
“He was arrested and taken to Surry Hills Police Station, where he was charged with committing an act of cruelty to an animal.
“The man from North Sydney was given conditional bail.”
Patrick had responded with his own brief statement identifying himself as the accused man.
“A plea of no-fault has been filed,” he said. “I feared for my safety and tried to protect myself. The case will be defended.’
Cameron confirmed on Wednesday that self-defense will be discussed when the case is heard in April next year.
She said Patrick’s shin had made contact with the dog and that there had been an altercation with the owner and his two friends.
He had kicked the dog once outside the Colombian and then again after he fled Crown Street.
The dog’s owner and his male friend then chased Patrick down Oxford Street until they carried out a citizen’s arrest at the pharmacy on the corner of Riley Street.
Patrick had walked past the Colombian when he became involved in an altercation with a dog owner and another man and woman, all three of whom were friends. He was haunted down this stretch of Oxford Street
Ms Cameron said Rosie had no visible injuries and there was no veterinary evidence.
‘There is no evidence of injury; it could be that the dog was injured, but we just don’t know,” she said.
Ms Cameron said the testimony of the three witnesses would be disputed and that her client had been harmed because police had not sought CCTV footage from outside the Colombian.
Magistrate Gareth Christofi wanted to know Rosie’s breed. When Ms Cameron said she appeared to be a ‘Staffy of Pitbull’, Mr Christofi replied: ‘Not a shrinking pansy of a dog’.
Patrick is represented by Trudie Cameron, Director of Practice at Armstrong Legal
“Sounds like a very unfortunate incident,” the magistrate said.
Police Commissioner Stephen Warren described Rosie as “extremely calm” and said she had been waiting at traffic lights with her owner while on a leash.
Ms Cameron objected that while Rosie may not have seemed “overly aggressive,” there was a public perception that some breeds of dog were inherently dangerous.
She said the officer in charge of the investigation had told her client words along the lines of, “I might have attacked you too if you kicked my dog” while arresting him.
Ms Cameron said Patrick also claimed the officer had threatened to put him in a headlock if he did not use the fingerprint machine correctly at the Surry Hills police station.
Patrick went on to claim that he was placed under “undue pressure” during his police interrogation.
Ms Cameron indicated that the officer in charge would subsequently have felt some hostility or malice towards Patrick, which contributed to information about the incident being published nine months later.
The public prosecutor has stated that he has had no contact with journalists.
Attorney Trudie Cameron said the testimony of the three witnesses would be disputed and that her client had been harmed because police had not sought CCTV footage from outside the Colombian.
Christofi said there were numerous other statements about how Patrick’s arrest was eventually published, including a “muckraker” who went to the media.
He found that there was no “rational basis” to form the opinion that the defendant had leaked the information and that any suggestion made was “completely speculative.”
Ms Cameron withdrew her request for the criminal history of the dog owner and his friends when Mr Warren said they had no records.
Christofi declined to order the transfer of police-media communications related to Patrick’s arrest, stating that it was a “fishing expedition.”
Patrick is a graduate of the arts from the University of Sydney, where he studied political science and received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He is a board member of the Harvard Club of Australia and a former Honorary Treasurer of the Foreign Press Association in London.
His Linkedin profile states that Patrick is the author of the most read article in afr.com history – an October 2019 piece titled “Australia is rich, dumb and being dumber.”
In addition to writing for Nine newspaper, Patrick also wrote the book “Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party’s Civil War,” which was released in June.
He has also published works on Morrison’s previous administration, the demise of the Labor Party after the Rudd-Gillard era, and the unraveling of Tony Abbott’s government.