Former television presenter Andrew O’Keefe is taking his battle for freedom to the state’s highest court as he fights allegations he choked and assaulted a woman.
The besieged former Channel 7 personality has been refused bail after he was arrested for the alleged assault of a woman at his Sydney CBD apartment on January 25.
But Mr O’Keefe will take his fight to the NSW Supreme Court on March 8 in another bid for freedom from custody on remand.
The 50-year-old did not appear in court when the matter was briefly mentioned by solicitor Lindsay Stankovic on Monday and the date was confirmed with registrar George Galanis.
Police have alleged Mr O’Keefe choked, punched and kicked the 38-year-old woman, who cannot be identified due to court orders, after she went to his Kent St unit for a business meeting.
Solicitor Sharon Ramsden told magistrate Erin Kennedy that Mr O’Keefe would appear before the Supreme Court on March 8 for a bail hearing and asked for the matter to be adjourned.
He was charged with three counts of common assault, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of intentionally choking without consent
He’s also facing separate charges of breaching an AVO, relating to a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons and an incident that occurred last year.
Mr O’Keefe has previously pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge after officers found 1.5g of marijuana in his apartment.
However, his lawyer previously flagged his intention to plead not guilty to all other charges.
Following his arrest in January, Mr O’Keefe yelled obscenities and that he was a “victim of crime” to journalists as he was driven away from Day Street Police Station.
Mr O’Keefe was a star at Seven for 17 years and appeared on programs like The Chase and Weekend Sunrise.
He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2017 for “significant service to the broadcast media as a television presenter and to social welfare and charitable organisations”.
He was an ambassador for White Ribbon, an anti-domestic violence organisation.
White Ribbon went into liquidation in 2019 and said Mr O’Keefe had no role with the group after it relaunched in 2020.
