Seven months on from Paul Kent’s arrest and subsequent standing down from his roles at Fox Sports and The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney court has found him not guilty of allegations he assaulted his then-partner.
In May, Police were called to Kent’s Lilyfield home, before being taken to Surry Hills police station, where he was charged with common assault and choking a person without consent. It was alleged that Kent got into an argument with a 33-year-old woman before the police were called.
Police added a third charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm was added by police in November.
On Tuesday, Magistrate Daniel Rees found that the charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, concluding that Kent “was acting in reasonable self-defence of his property” after having his phone taken. The decision came after a two-day hearing in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.
Speaking to reporters outside court, Kent said “I’ve been vindicated today. The judge accepted what happened.”
He called the ordeal “a big setback” that had “caused significant reputational damage”.
“It’s been seven months I’ve had to sit there and feel like I’ve been unfairly arrested [and] unfairly charged, and I’ve had to sit there and have my public reputation lacerated by people who have used it as an opportunity.”
When news of the arrest broke, Kent was working for both Fox Sports and The Daily Telegraph. “Paul Kent has been stood down from his duties with News Corp and Fox Sports while he deals with this personal matter,” News Corp said in a statement at the time.
In May, Foxtel reportedly removed the back catalogue of NRL 360 in the wake of the arrest. Kent had been a presenter on NRL 360 since the show first launched in 2013.
Posts emerged on social media of an error screen reading “This content is not available anymore” when users went to search NRL 360 on Foxtel. Clips of the show’s content remain available on Fox League’s YouTube channel.
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