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A former contestant on My Kitchen Rules who allegedly dragged a complainant down a hallway and choked her has had one of his charges dropped.
Anthony Mu, who appeared on the cooking show on Channel 7, is facing several charges, including assault occasioning bodily harm and common assault.
He was also facing a charge of recording in breach of privacy. However, this was dropped on Friday after his legal team were successful in their submission that he had no case to answer for on that count.
The identities of the couple were previously suppressed by a non-publication order.
Mu appeared on the reality television show with his partner, Claudean Uamaki-Mu, who was committed to stand trial in the District Court earlier this year on several separate charges including rape.
Mu appeared for a hearing in a local Brisbane court on Friday, where one witness gave evidence they saw Mu throw one of the complainants into a wall, with her back hitting bricks behind plasterboard.
“I helped her out of the wall. She was just crying and shaken up,” the witness told the court.
Upon hearing this evidence, Mu, seated behind his legal team, repeatedly shook his head.
Under cross-examination, Mu’s barrister Steve Kissick put to the witness they were making stories up. The witness denied this.
The complainant, who claimed she was thrown into the wall, was recalled to give evidence on Friday. Kissick put to her she and the witness had made up the claims she was thrown into the wall in preparation for court. The complainant denied this.
At earlier court proceedings, the complainant claimed there were several incidents she experienced with Mu. She claimed in one incident, which was sparked during dinner and involving tomato sauce, Mu became irate and threw a burger at the back of her head.
She told the court he got up and grabbed her by the hair, screaming at her to “get the f--- up”. The court heard she was then dragged down the hallway, before Mu pulled her up to her feet by the hair. She claimed Mu choked her against the wall, calling her a “disrespectful c---”.
Mu’s barrister put to her that she made up the allegations for monetary benefit, which the complainant denied.
In another incident, the complainant said Mu had kicked her in the stomach, before pushing her down the stairs. A co-worker later took photos of her bruises, but because the complainant was fearful for her life, she never formally reported the incidents, she told the court.
The co-worker gave evidence on Friday that the complainant had come to work and seemed upset. When the co-worker hugged the complainant, she flinched, the co-worker said.
“I saw a bruise and I asked her what happened, and she became very upset,” the co-worker said.
Another witness told the court she never saw any of the alleged abuse.
Another woman called by the defence, who gave two statements to police and was initially a complainant, but later retracted her first, told the court the claims were not true, and she had lied about them as she felt pressured.
When asked by the prosecution about how she provided an extensive amount of detail in her first statement, the woman told the court they were lies.
Kissick submitted one of the charges against Mu, recording in breach of privacy in 2020, should be thrown out.
He argued the complainant, on her evidence, said she was told to do it, and therefore under the offence, she could not expect to be afforded privacy.
Prosecutor Tom Wirawan argued the complainant had not consented to it.
Magistrate Michael Quinn told the court he was satisfied Mu could not lawfully be convicted of the particular charge, and it was dropped.
The case remains before the court.
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