A woman has been charged with assaulting a journalist in a media scrum outside a Sydney court.
The 31-year-old woman is accused of shoving a television camera into the face of Sky News reporter Amy Greenbank at the Bankstown courthouse on Friday, while Greenbank and other reporters followed her down the footpath.
She was charged on Saturday with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and bailed to appear in court on 14 December.
The reporter required some medical attention and posted a photo of the taped-up cut to Twitter, with the message: “Eventful day but I’m fine. Thanks for all your well wishes!”
Eventful day but I'm fine. Thanks for all your well wishes! pic.twitter.com/1mm4NF5HlN
— Amy Greenbank (@Amy_Greenbank) November 18, 2016
The accused woman is reported to be the estranged wife of Tarek Assaad, who had appeared in court that day on charges of possessing a prohibited weapon after a Glock handgun and 30 rounds of ammunition was allegedly found in the television cabinet during raids by the Middle Eastern organised crime squad on his Sturt Avenue home in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Georges Hall on Thursday night.
“I can assure members of the public that we are doing everything we can, and will continue to do everything we can to get these guns off the streets and target those who seek to bring them into the community,” the New South Wales police assistant commissioner, Mark Jenkins, said on Friday.
Assaad’s brother, Hamad Assaad, was shot dead outside another house in the same street on 25 October after being linked to the shooting of another gangland figure in April.
He was denied bail, with the magistrate citing concerns he might seek retribution for his brother’s death.
• Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
