Video: Andrew O’Keefe after arrest for alleged assault

Troubled ex-TV host Andrew O’Keefe was heard screaming loudly as he was driven away by police after being charged with choking and bashing a woman.

Troubled former TV star Andrew O’Keefe is in custody charged with assaulting and choking a woman as leading anti-domestic ­violence campaigner Rosie Batty said she was horrified by the allegations.

As he was being driven from Day St Police Station to police cells on Thursday he could be heard screaming from the back of the van: “F... you, I’m a victim of crime. I’m a victim of crime you f...wits”.

He also appeared to be throwing himself against the inside of the vehicle.

Andrew O'Keefe pictured in the back of a police wagon departing the Day St police station in Sydney. Picture: Liam Mendes

O’Keefe, 50, who was for years the male face of the White Ribbon anti-violence movement, is due to face ­Central Local Court today charged with choking and punching a woman, 38,   at his city apartment on Tuesday.

He was charged late on Thursday with two counts of intentionally choking a person without their consent, three counts of common assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after a verbal argument.

Police will allege the woman was his business partner.

He was arrested at his Kent St unit at 4.30am on Thursday after the woman ­reported the alleged incident on Wednesday.

“Police have been told an argument ensued, with the man allegedly assaulting and choking the woman before she was able to leave the unit,” police said.

O’Keefe was refused police bail.

Andrew O'Keefe. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

In June last year, O’Keefe had two domestic violence charges against him dismissed on mental health grounds after a magistrate found he had been suffering a bipolar episode at the time he was charged with assaulting then-partner Dr Orly Lavee.

Ms Batty said she remembered the ex-game show host as a inspiring and passionate advocate against domestic ­violence with White Ribbon when she first met him after her son Luke was murdered by his abusive father in 2014.

“He really reflected the language and the messaging that we needed to hear or should hear from a man and that was to respect women,” the 2015 Australian of the Year Ms Batty said on Thursday.

“The allegations are horrifying, sad and fill me with dismay and there is no excuse and I am not condoning what he allegedly has done.”

O’Keefe, the former Deal or No Deal host, said in 2011: “When it comes to violence against women, men are the problem and so they should logically be the source of the answer to that problem.”

O'Keefe during a video in 2011 as a White Ribbon ambassador.

White Ribbon on Thursday distanced itself from its former ambassador.

The organisation went into liquidation in 2019 and the group said O'Keefe has had no role with it after it was relaunched in 2020.

“We were dismayed to hear news that Andrew O’Keefe, who was previously aligned with White Ribbon Australia, was arrested following the alleged assault of a woman in Sydney,” the group’s chief executive Melissa Perry said.

The ex-TV host’s Kent St apartment building in Sydney.

He has been charged with assault.

O’Keefe, nephew of rock star Johnny O’Keefe and son of former Supreme Court judge Barry O’Keefe, was in 2017 appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the broadcast media as a television presenter, and to social welfare and charitable organisations”.

No decision will be made whether to strip him of his Australia Day honour until all legal processes are completed, including appeals.

After 17 years with Channel 7, his contract was not ­renewed and he left the network in February last year.

Originally published as Video: Andrew O’Keefe after arrest for alleged assault