Ultra Tune founder Peter Sean Buckley fronts court in first day of hearing for stalking allegations
Body-worn camera footage has revealed Ultra Tune mogul Sean Buckley claimed he let a stranger into his ex partner’s apartment in a bid to organise “surprise proposal” amid stalking allegations.
Melbourne City
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The high-flying founder of Ultra Tune accused of assaulting and stalking his ex-partner told police he was “planning a surprise proposal” after his co-accused was busted inside a CBD apartment, a court has heard.
Peter Sean Buckley fronted the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on October 17 alongside co-accused Wade D’Andrea where he is fighting seven charges including assault and stalking.
Mr Buckley was charged in 2020 after his ex-partner Jennifer Cruz Cole accused him of “punching her in the face 10 times”.
Mr D’Andrea was also charged in relation to the allegations, and faces one charge of stalking.
On Thursday, the court was shown more than one hour of body worn camera footage from July 2020, after Ms Cole allegedly caught Mr D’Andrea inside her CBD apartment.
The court heard Ms Cole had left the apartment to pick up her daughter, before returning back a short time later to find Mr D’Andrea “inside her laundry”.
Mr D’Andrea made an attempt to flee the building, but was held down by the building manager and an unknown bystander before police arrived, the court heard.
He asked for a lawyer then made no comment about the incident to police during the body-worn camera footage.
In police evidence heard by the court, Ms Cole was “very distressed and erratic” after finding the unknown man in her apartment.
The court heard Mr Buckley arrived a short time later and told police he had arranged for Mr D’Andrea to organise flowers and balloons as a surprise for Ms Cole, as he planned to propose to her.
“I sent him to make the apartment nice because I was going to propose to her in Sydney,” he told police in the camera footage.
“We are flying to Sydney at 4.30pm.”
Mr Buckley repeatedly told police the same story, saying he gave Mr D’Andrea a key to access the apartment.
The police informant told the court Ms Cole had stopped co-operating with cops when Mr Buckley arrived at the “chaotic scene”.
“The scene was a bit chaotic, I had parties not assisting us and with the minimal information we had at the time I had to make a decision,” he said.
Mr Buckley had previously been committed to stand trial in the County Court in March 2023, however had the matter sent back down to the Magistrates’ Court.
In early October he had Magistrate Therese McCarthy recused from his case after highlighting a potential bias, after Ms McCarthy sentenced Mr Buckley’s associate Anthony Swords in 2022.
Swords was sentenced by Ms McCarthy after he pleaded guilty to installing a hidden camera outside Ms Cole’s apartment.
The matter was adjourned to October 18 to continue in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
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