Deloitte executive Dr Rohan Hammett assaulted by model ex Sarah Su
A high-powered health executive locked his 22-year-old model ex-girlfriend on his balcony after she assaulted him because she said she found him asleep in bed with another woman.
Police & Courts
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A high-powered health executive locked his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend on his balcony after she said she found him asleep in bed with another woman and assaulted him.
Dr Rohan Hammett told police that his ex, model Sarah Su, “scared the living daylights out of me”, when she let herself into his beachside home, turned on his bedroom lights and then started screaming when she said spotted another woman in his bed, Manly Local Court heard on Monday.
The incident unfolded around midnight on November 25 last year inside Dr Hammett’s Avalon home on Sydney’s northern beaches, and resulted in police charging Ms Su with common assault.
Dr Hammett — the 56-year-old former boss of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration and senior executive for NSW Health, who is now Deloitte’s Asia Pacific healthcare leader — had been romantically involved with Ms Su for about 18 months, the court heard.
The pair holidayed together in Byron Bay the week before the incident, the court was told. At the end of the getaway, Dr Hammett broke off the relationship. They had broken up previously, only to rekindle when Ms Su turned up at his house, the court heard.
In his video interview with police that was played to the court, Dr Hammett said “I was asleep in bed and woke up to have her inside the room … she was screaming at me and started hitting me.”
Dr Hammett told the officer he “opened the balcony door and put her outside”.
Asked by the officer why he broke off the relationship, Dr Hammett said: “She’s 22, I’m 55 with kids.”
In her recorded interview, Ms Su told the officers it was Dr Hammett who assaulted her.
The officers arrived at the property after Ms Su called triple-0 while locked outside on the balcony.
She told police that Dr Hammett had choked her with “a lot of force” and “pushed the side of my face into a wooden pillar”, before causing her to fall, the court heard. He denies this.
Ms Su told the officers she felt betrayed upon finding another woman in Dr Hammett’s bed.
“I went into the bedroom and saw them in bed,” Ms Su told the officer. “(I said) ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this to me … I hate you’.”
Ms Su also told the officer that Dr Hammett “told me he loved me and cares for me … he told me he won’t date anyone else” while they were in Byron Bay.
The court heard the woman in Dr Hammett’s bed was his work colleague, Dr Stephanie Allen, Deloitte’s Global Healthcare Leader.
Ms Su’s lawyer, Leo Premutico, told the court Dr Hammett had not told police that Dr Allen was in his bedroom at the time of the incident.
The officer in charge of the case, Constable Meriki Buckman, confirmed under Mr Premutico’s cross examination that police found Dr Allen in the bedroom after Ms Su told them there was a woman upstairs.
Police had not subpoenaed Dr Allen to appear in court, and when asked why by Mr Premutico, Constable Buckman said she was unaware Dr Allen could legally be called to give evidence.
In a police video played to the court, Dr Allen said she heard an altercation but did not see either Ms Su or Dr Hammett assault each other.
Magistrate Robyn Denes ruled Ms Su was guilty of assault, but gave her reasons in closed court and did not record a criminal conviction against Ms Su.
On Friday night, Dr Hammet’s lawyer Paul McGirr said his client denied he was sleeping with Dr Allen.
“He was working with a colleague on work-related matter at his premises, and to suggest they were sleeping in bed together is strenuously denied,” Mr McGirr said.
“It appears that Ms Su was highly stressed may have interpreted matters incorrectly.”
Dr Allen told police she was in an “on and off” relationship with Dr Hammett.
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