Nicky Winmar, a former player in the Australian Football League, is facing four counts of assault after a woman claimed in a Victorian court that he grabbed her hair and hit her head against a door in an ordeal that she found horrifying.
The unidentified woman testified Monday in Bendigo Magistrates Court as Winmar tried to rebut the charges against him.
The police claim that on May 14, 2025, Winmar, at age 60, assaulted the woman in Cohuna in the north of Victoria.
In her testimony, the complainant stated that she was shocked because suddenly the evening became horrific as Winmar started screaming without any provocation.
She explained, “We had not been having an argument or something like that. I could not make sense of what happened. I was absolutely shocked.”
It is stated in her testimony that Winmar grabbed her arm and twisted it harshly before grabbing her ponytail and dragging her to a different room.
She also accused him of hitting her head against a door and spitting on her face.
The court was also shown a recording of the woman’s triple zero call from that night, and body worn camera footage taken by the police officer who attended. There was a photograph in evidence showing a bruise above the woman’s right elbow.
When asked by Winmar’s barrister Dermot Dann KC, the woman agreed she had not told the full story of what allegedly happened when she first spoke to the emergency call operator or the responding officer.
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She told the court it was not a deliberate omission, saying she was emotionally shattered afterwards.
The contested hearing will resume next Tuesday.
Winmar still holds the distinction of being one of the most well known individuals in the Australian football industry.
He was the first indigenous player to play 200 AFL games, amassing a total of 230 games for St Kilda and 21 more for the Western Bulldogs.
Perhaps his most iconic moment came in 1993 at Victoria Park, where he responded to the verbal racism from spectators by pulling up his shirt and pointing to his skin color.
The allegations have not been confirmed as of yet. The case is still pending before the courts.
