Catalano charged with assaulting a woman

Prominent media owner Antony Catalano has been charged with assault and accused in court of dragging a woman around an apartment by her hair and ankles, before swinging a clothes iron at her head.

The woman sustained a fractured coccyx during the alleged attack by the 59-year-old, who was granted bail on Friday evening at a hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.

Catalano, the co-owner and chairman of Australian Community Media (ACM), is facing charges of assault, false imprisonment and making threats to kill, according to a report by the ABC.

He was placed on an “immediate leave of absence until this matter is resolved”, ACM general manager Tony Kendall told staff on Saturday.

Two sources, who asked not to be named, told this masthead that police attended the Saint Moritz building in St Kilda on Thursday evening, where Catalano owns the penthouse he purchased for $30 million in 2019.

On Friday evening, a police informant asked Magistrate Rohan Lawrence to deny bail for Catalano, alleging the prominent businessman posed an unacceptable risk of further offending and fleeing Victoria.

“The accused dragged the victim to the laundry area where he grabbed a clothes iron and held it towards the victim’s head, causing the victim to grab onto the iron herself,” according to a police summary read in court.

Catalano refused to comment on Saturday when this masthead approached him as he returned to the St Kilda complex.

The police informant told the court the woman sustained a fractured coccyx and had spent several hours in hospital following the alleged assault.

The entire incident was captured by CCTV cameras, with Catalano’s barrister Jason Gullaci, SC, conceding there was “no doubt” his client had made physical contact with the woman.

“There’s still a few moving parts about exactly what happened, how it started, how it moved out to the area where the CCTV footage is inside, how it then manifested in relation to what happened in that hallway,” he said.

Gullaci said a claim by the woman that Catalano forcefully swung the iron at her head was not included in the written police summary presented to court.

Before granting bail, Magistrate Lawrence described the evidence as “relatively strong” and said a jail term was possible if the charges were proved, according to the ABC report.

Catalano was not required to enter a plea, given the early stage of the case.

This masthead has contacted Victoria Police for further detail on the incident.

The court had been told Catalano recently experienced a mental health episode at his waterfront residence in Wategos Beach in Byron Bay and was admitted to a psychiatric ward last month after using drugs.

“It is believed approximately three days ago at his property in Byron Bay, the accused himself called police because he believed he was seeing people emerging from the woodworks around his property,” the officer testified on Friday.

Originally a property reporter with Fairfax Media, Catalano rapidly ascended to become Domain Group chief executive in 2015 before abruptly departing from Fairfax in 2018, when he said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

However, in 2019, he splashed $125 million to buy Australian Community Media, the publisher of major regional newspapers including The Canberra Times and Newcastle Herald and 160 regional mastheads.

Widely known in media and property circles as “The Cat”, the 59-year-old has extensive business and real estate interests across the nation, including the $30 million St Kilda apartment, a $7 million penthouse on Mount Buller and a stake in famed Byron Bay resort Raes on Wategos.

However the past 12 months have been turbulent for Catalano, who has four children with wife Stephanie and five other children with two previous partners.

He only recently reconciled with his 40-year-old wife last month, following a trial separation.

In March last year, he was spoken to by police officers from Byron Bay over a public altercation with celebrity jeweller Giovanni D’Ercole near Wategos Beach. No charges were laid over the incident.

Sources close to Catalano said he was also deeply traumatised by the sudden death of close friend and prominent Byron Bay restaurateur Kim Stephen.

Australian Community Media and his online property business View Media Group have both struggled in response to a slump in advertising, while his long-term business partner Alex Waislitz recently agreed to a $325 million settlement with his former wife, Visy heiress Heloise Pratt.

Catalano has also struggled to find a buyer for his St Kilda penthouse, which was put on the market last year with an asking price of $36 million. The price was slashed to $29.95 million last month, when Catalano blamed Melbourne’s soft real estate market on the high-taxing Victorian government.

His penthouse on Mount Buller has also failed to find a buyer with a price guide of $9.25 million.

Despite the mounting pressures, several sources close to Catalano said he had not curbed his enthusiastic partying.

“The problem for Cat is he carries on like a 30-year-old, but he’s almost 60. At some point something has to give … and I’m not sure Byron has been that good for him. He’s surrounded by too much temptation,” said a Melbourne businessman who had been friends with him for almost 30 years.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.