An award-winning newspaper columnist was captured on police body-worn camera footage describing the moment he kicked a dog he says was attacking him on a busy city street.
Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick claimed he was fearful for his safety when he put the boot into the pet outside a Chemist Warehouse in Sydney‘s inner-city Darlinghurst.
The 52-year-old has pleaded not guilty to committing an act of animal cruelty on November 27, 2021 and has hired prominent solicitor Bryan Wrench to represent him.
Video of police speaking with Patrick after his encounter with the dog Rosie – described as looking like a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier – was shown in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday.
Australian Financial Review columnist Aaron Patrick was captured on police body-worn camera footage describing the moment he kicked a dog he says was attacking him on a Sydney street. The 52-year-old is pictured outside Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday
It began with Senior Constable Mathew Clarkson telling Patrick he was under arrest for animal cruelty and affray as he stood outside the Chemist Warehouse on the corner of Oxford and Riley Streets.
Police allege Patrick nudged Rosie in the ribs with his shin then kicked at at her face while they were both on the eastern side of Riley Street at 6.18pm.
Patrick was then chased by the dog’s owner, Caleb Harrower, and another man across the road into Chemist Warehouse where he turned and swung his right foot into Rosie’s head.
‘I was walking down here,’ he told Senior Constable Clarkson. ‘And this dog came up to me and ran at me.
‘It was a big dog and I was fearful of what the dog was going to do with me so I kicked the dog to try and get it away from me.
‘But it was in self-defence because I was fearful for my safety.’
Patrick agreed Rosie was on a leash but claimed Mr Harrower, who runs a tattoo studio named after his pet in Surry Hills, had lashed out in an attempt to hit him.
Video of police speaking with Patrick after his encounter with the dog Rosie – described as looking like a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier – was shown in court on Thursday. ‘Are you seriously going to handcuff me for kicking a dog?’ Patrick asked. Rosie is pictured
‘I didn’t think that person had the dog under control,’ he told Senior Constable Clarkson. ‘I was genuinely in fear of my safety and I kicked the dog to try and just get it away from me.
‘If you’re going to charge me with animal cruelty I think it’s fair 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 answered ‘no comment’ then said ‘probably professionally, yes – inappropriate, yes.’
Before being taken into custody, Patrick said he had never been arrested previously.
‘Are you seriously going to handcuff me for kicking a dog?’ he asked Senior Constable Clarkson, who did.
Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick claimed he was fearful for his safety when he put the boot into a dog outside this Chemist Warehouse in inner-city Darlinghurst
Mr Harrower was not charged with assault and Patrick was not charged with affray when he was taken to Surry Hills police station.
Under cross-examination, Senior Constable Clarkson confirmed Rosie suffered no injury as a result of her encounter with Patrick.
When Mr Wrench asked the officer if he had made investigations to determine Rosie’s breed, police prosecutor Sergeant Jas Poonia objected.
‘If it’s a Chihuahua compared with a Staffy cross there’s a difference in how you deal with those dogs,’ Mr Wrench said.
Sergeant Poonia said police relied on each of three alleged contacts between Patrick and Rosie to sustain the animal cruelty charge against him.
‘It’s a series of kicks that is the act of cruelty,’ he told magistrate Rana Daher. ‘Each of these individual kicks are acts of cruelty. We say it’s the entire sequence.’
Mr Wrench told Ms Daher the onus was on the prosecution to prove whatever Patrick did was unreasonable, unnecessary or unjustifiable.
‘It is completely denied Mr Patrick performed an act that was in any way cruel as defined in the legislation,’ he said.
The journalist appeared on the court list charged under his full name, Aaron Odysseus Patrick. He has used the byline A. Odysseus Patrick when writing for foreign publications
The case was adjourned 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 list charged 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 renowned 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 where he writes about politics and business from the paper’s Sydney newsroom.
He has previously written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, having started his journalistic career on Melbourne’s Herald-Sun.
As well as writing for the Nine newspaper, Patrick also penned the book ‘Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party’s Civil War’ which was released last year.
He has also published works on the previous Morrison government, the downfall of the Labor Party after the Rudd-Gillard era and the unravelling of Tony Abbott’s government.
