A paparazzi has been charged with assault after a fight broke out while he was photographing Natalie Portman in Australia.
Paparazzo Trevor Goddard was trying to photograph Portman in a Sydney park in July last year when he allegedly assaulted fellow photographer Banjo McLachlan who was also trying to get a shot of her. Portman was filming Thor: Love and Thunder alongside Chris Hemsworth at the time.
The case was heard before Downing Centre District Court heard on Monday and Goddard was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. As per Daily Telegraph, he pleaded not guilty but was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month conditional release order in the NSW Local Court in April 2022.
The altercation allegedly began because McLachlan had been at the park waiting for Portman for an hour when Goddard showed up. The court heard that McLachlan asked Goddard “Where is the respect?”. Goddard then allegedly lunged forward and grabbed McLachlan, and scratched his neck in the process.
Goddard’s defence barrister, Timothy Kent claimed that he was acting in self defence, and pushed Mr McLachlan away without force. However, Prosecutor Scott Jaeger said that Goddard could have simply walked away and compared the altercation between the paparazzi to a “bloodsport”.
Kent has since launched an appeal for Goddard’s 12-month conditional release order and Goddard has claimed that he no longer wants to work as a paparazzo, but switch to cyber security and has stated that all jobs in that field require a police clearance.
In paparazzi related news, Nicole Kidman testified against a paparazzi in 2007, claiming that she had been “really, really scared” when a photographer chased her car across Sydney.
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The actress was testifying for a case between Sydney newspaper the Sun-Herald and the photographer in question in a defamation case where the newspaper described him as the city’s most disliked freelance photographer and claimed he was determined to “wreak havoc” on Kidman’s private life.
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