Joel Cooney: domestic violence hearing begins in court

A bar owner has denied allegations he slammed his partner onto a tiled floor and then choked her until she passed out after finding videos on her Snapchat account.

Ron De Vu bar owner Joel Cooney has faced court charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and reckless choking.

A prominent Wollongong business owner has faced court over grave allegations he dragged his former partner down the stairs, bashed her head against kitchen tiles and strangled her until she passed out after a midnight argument.

Joel Cooney, 31, has strenuously denied violently assaulting his then-partner of 18 months inside her own home at Taren Point in January 2020.

He faced Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday for a hearing before Magistrate Les Mabbutt after pleading not guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and reckless choking.

Ron De Vu bar owner Joel Cooney.

In court a police prosecutor unveiled distressing details of the alleged attack, said to have begun after the pair were intimate and the woman gave Cooney her phone to order food.

“He has gone through her Snapchat and texts and seen videos he wasn’t happy with,” the prosecutor said.

“The accused has gone upstairs and, on her evidence, dragged her by her leg down the stairs into the dining room, picked her up, and slammed her into the tiled floor.”

Cooney is then alleged to have squeezed the woman’s throat tightly until she had trouble breathing while she tried to scream for help.

“He has been telling her that he wants to kill her,” the prosecutor said.

“At one point she passed out, and woke up to him still strangling her – he held her nostrils and covered her mouth to stop her from screaming.”

Cooney at his Wollongong bar.

The prosecutor then said Cooney allegedly picked the woman up by her hair and slammed her head repeatedly into the floor before she managed to run to a neighbour’s home for help.

The court heard the woman was depicted on her neighbour’s doorbell camera in a state of complete distress before police arrived at the scene.

Sutherland Shire police officer Constable Lee Hughes told the court he received several images of large, dark bruises on the woman’s body – alleged to have been caused by Cooney – in the days after the incident.

Cooney will return to court later this year.

Cooney’s barrister Steven Boland told the court the pair had been in an on-off relationship for 18 months after meeting online and the events of that evening took place after Cooney picked his then-partner up from drinks at a friend’s place.

The woman gave evidence via an audiovisual link in a closed court and the hearing will resume on October 18 before Mr Mabbutt at Sutherland Local Court.