Police charge the wife of a Barrenjoey banker with assault

Police were called to the home of Dyson and Jessica Bowditch.

Police turned up at the home of hot-shot Barrenjoey banker Dyson Bowditch last Monday night after he was allegedly assaulted by his ex-television producer wife Jessica, with whom he’s currently in the middle of a divorce.

We hear 44-year-old Bowditch was asleep in bed when 38-year-old Jessica, a former Channel Ten journalist and casual producer at the Seven Network, allegedly burst inside, turned on the light and drunkenly started shouting at him.

A stream of invective followed, according to police, including a jibe about a watch that Bowditch recently purchased on a trip to China. A Patek? A Rolex Daytona? We weren’t able to establish those facts, although we’re led to believe the timepiece was actually a fake, purchased as a novelty.

Officers ended up banging on the door of the home in Darling Point, Sydney, around 11:45pm following reports of an assault.

It was allegedly Jessica who called the police with that claim, except the cops listened to both parties and subsequently laid an assault charge against her once she was arrested and taken back to Waverley Police Station.

Granted conditional bail, there was no sign of the Bowditch inside room 5.2 of the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday morning, where her lawyer, Simon Long, of McGirr & Associates, entered a not guilty plea.

The firm’s principal, Paul McGirr, told us: “The matter will be contested. The allegation relates to the throwing of a pillow.” Much as that sounds benign, police are going to allege the pillow was used in the course of a physical strike to the face.

Bowditch is the co-head of Barrenjoey’s Equity Capital Markets and was poached with Jabe Jerram (his co-head and better half at the investment bank) from rival JP Morgan in 2021 (who in turn poached them as a package deal from Goldman Sachs in 2017).

No response from the banker when we sought comment.