A high-profile Australian television actor is scheduled to take the witness stand this week as a legal hearing examines a contentious assault allegation stemming from a pro-Palestinian protest inside Victoria’s Parliament House in Melbourne.
Alicia Gardiner, widely recognized for her long-running role on the hit series *Offspring* and more recent appearances in *Deadloch*, stands accused of intentionally twisting a female parliamentary staff member’s breast on the afternoon of May 7, 2024. The incident unfolded moments after a group of protestors were removed from the building’s public gallery for demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas conflict. Security body-worn camera footage played in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday captured the crowd chanting slogans including “free free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea” as they were escorted out of the parliamentary complex.
Prosecutors claim the alleged assault took place just after 1 p.m. near the door to the state’s legislative chamber, where the staff member was stationed. One witness testifying at the hearing told the court he pushed back a woman in blue—who prosecutors identify as Gardiner—when she attempted to enter the restricted chamber area. He told the court he then observed her in a physical tussle with his colleague, the alleged victim. The witness added that moments after the confrontation, police protective services officers arrived on the scene, and when he checked on his colleague afterward, she appeared visibly shaken and shocked by the encounter.
Gardiner has repeatedly denied that she intentionally assaulted the staff member. Her defense lawyer, Angeline Centrone, told the court Wednesday that any physical contact between her client and the complainant was accidental. Centrone explained that Gardiner had raised her hands to steady herself amid the chaotic crowd crush that followed the protest dispersal, and any contact with the staff member was an unintended result of that movement.
The ongoing hearing, overseen by Magistrate Malcolm Thomas, continued Wednesday with Gardiner expected to give her own testimony to the court later that afternoon. No verdict has been delivered as the proceedings are still underway.