Sydney barrister Guy Reynolds seriously assaulted at derelict Edgecliff mansion

Prominent Sydney barrister Guy Reynolds was seen “crawling around” with “blood streaming down his head and neck” after being assaulted by a man found trespassing at one of his rundown Sydney mansions.

Guy Reynold’ mansion in Edgecliff.

Exclusive: Prominent Sydney barrister Guy Reynolds has been seriously assaulted by a man found trespassing at one of Reynolds’ derelict Sydney mansions.

The top-tier barrister, whose clients have included Eddie Obeid, Man Haron Monis, Mick Gatto and Peter Dutton, was assaulted at his controversial and seemingly abandoned shabby Edgecliff property on January 6.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing Reynolds “crawling around” in the front yard of the house “with blood streaming down his head and neck” in the midst of a chaotic scene attended by five police cars and an ambulance.

It followed a skirmish with a man, Jesse Ford, who was subsequently arrested by police and led away in handcuffs.

On January 11, Ford faced Waverley Court on charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and trespassing.

The derelict mansion in Edgecliff.

Ford, who did not attend court, was convicted in his absence by Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge and ordered to pay $3000.

The incident comes almost a year after Reynolds’ beleaguered and frustrated neighbours contacted this column to report the sorry and neglected state of Reynolds‘ property and a second house, also owned by the barrister, two doors up.

Barrister Guy Reynolds.

The second house, a Spanish Mission-style hacienda, was built in 1959 for Reynolds’ parents, former Woollahra mayor and Supreme Court judge Thomas Reynolds and his wife Jennifer and their four children, the youngest of whom is ’80s advertising wunderkind Siimon.

Neighbours say Ford’s assault on the barrister, who is believed to be close to 70, might have been avoided had Reynolds taken seriously the concerns that saw them lobby Woollahra Council past year for help dealing with issues at the properties.

Neighbours have raised complaints about the property in the past.

These issues included: a troublesome and seemingly unattended security alarm, which went off randomly and for extended periods of time; an alleged rat and cockroach infestation, which Reynolds denies; and a then neglected full swimming pool, which neighbours claimed was mosquito-infested.

Council confirmed last June it had asked Reynolds to produce a pest inspection report, drain his pool and better manage his security alarm.

The beautiful but derelict house.

For years, neighbours say, there has long been a heightened risk Reynolds’ centrally located eastern suburbs’ properties would attract squatters.

According to neighbourhood folklore, Reynolds previously had the internal stairs between the two floors of one property removed in an effort to discourage the homeless from setting up camp.

Relations between Reynolds and his aggrieved neighbours reached boiling point last year when this columnist was informed that, despite the owner’s respected professional standing and apparent wealth, the barrister – who lives in a multimillion-dollar sub-penthouse apartment in Macquarie Street – was failing in his responsibilities to maintain the two ageing mansions.

Reynolds was back at work yesterday and could not be reached for comment on the extent of his injuries or his future plans for the decaying houses, for which he was said to have held restoration dreams.