By court reporter Karl Hoerr
Sydney hotelier Dane Bouris has been found not guilty of assaulting his girlfriend during an argument at his Watson’s Bay apartment earlier this year.
Alexandra Dankwa told the Downing Centre Local Court today that her boyfriend choked her, put her in a headlock and pulled out her hair extensions, at the unit in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in April.
Bouris denied the allegations.
Magistrate Michael Barko has found there were doubts about the case and has dismissed the charge.
Bouris, son of prominent businessman Mark Bouris, faced the hearing charged with assault causing actual bodily harm.
Ms Dankwa told the court Bouris started attacking her as she was trying to leave the home.
She said she made a number of triple-0 calls and was later contacted by police, who asked her to attend Rose Bay police station where she later made a statement.
Ms Dankwa told the court her neck was stiff after the alleged attack, but there were no visible marks left.
She said there was some bruising to her legs but it was difficult to see.
Asked by the prosecutor why she hung up during one of her triple-0 calls, she said: “I guess I didn’t want to get him [Bouris] into trouble.”
Ms Dankwa said the choking incident happened on the bed of a spare room, from where she was trying to retrieve some of her belongings before she left.
“I was saying, ‘I just want to get my stuff, I want to go’,” she said.
“He then was on top of me and started choking me.
“[His hands] were around my throat. I couldn’t breathe.”
Earlier in her evidence, she told the court that Bouris pulled out three of her hair extensions as well as some of her own hair, when the incident started in another part of the home.
