A stalking charge against a man accused of being obsessed with one of Australia’s top models has been dropped – with a court shown CCTV of her relaxed and sipping champagne at a Bondi venue while he’s there.
Police withdrew the stalking charge against Benjamin Reeves, 58, who had been accused of deliberately turning up in the Sydney CBD and the Bondi beach party district when the Australia’s Next Top Model star was working or socialising.
And on Thursday afternoon his lawyers were awarded $36,208 after a magistrate ruled that I’m a Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here star Simone Holtznagel‘s evidence against Mr Reeves was ‘unreliable’
Ms Holtznagal, 29, claimed she had been followed to multiple functions by the man between May and July 2022 and NSW Police arrested Benjamin Reeves in August last year.
But in a dramatic development, prosecutors withdrew the stalking charge and on Thursday Mr Reeves’ lawyer successfully applied for costs, saying officers had viewed CCTV of their client and Ms Holtznagal at Ravesi’s and clearly he wasn’t stalking her.
Barrister Steven Boland told Downing Centre Local Court that it was a case of Mr Reeves and his accuser of both frequenting entertainment precincts – the Ivy venue area of the Sydney CBD and the beachside strip at Bondi.
‘It’s people going to popular public places and seeing each other,’ he said. ‘It would be the same if Mr Reeves was pointing the finger at her.’
Simone Holtznagel (pictured) starred on Australia’s Next Top Model and SAS Australia
Police have dropped a stalking charge against Benjamin Reeves (arriving at court on Thursday) who was accused of being obsessed with model Simone Holtznagal
He said that Ms Holtznagal in her police statement had described Mr Reeves’ distinctive looks – around 188cm tall, skinny, with long legs and a stiff gait, curly red hair, freckles and ‘beady eyes’ – ‘in a derogatory way’.
He said footage of her sipping champagne and kissing her celebrity personal trainer boyfriend Jono Castano on Ravesi’s balcony while Mr Reeves was sometimes nearby showed up ‘vast inaccuracies’ in her police statement.
He said instead of being frightened, as she had told police, she and her boyfriend were displaying ‘back slapping hilarity’ on the night, June 12 last year.
At one point on the CCTV played in court, Ms Holtznagal puts her fingers into her mouth twice and makes a vomiting gesture.
Mr Boland said this could represent her ‘revulsion’ for Mr Reeves: ‘she finds him aesthetically displeasing’.
However Magistrate Glenn Bartley responded that the gestures could be a response to ‘anything. That could be federal politics or Waverley Council politics’.
His Honour noted that Ms Holtznagal’s body language changed when Mr Reeves approached the table and she saw him, ‘Her body language seems to say she didn’t want him there’.
The 29-year-old (pictured) is one of the country’s top models having fronted international campaigns
Mr Boland countered that there were large tracts of Ms Holtznagal’s police statement about the occasion that weren’t true, including that Mr Reeves ‘was within centimetres of my face’ at Ravesi’s ‘is clearly untrue’.
Magistrate Bartley dismissed the Apprehended Violence Order taken out by police against Mr Reeves for Ms Holtznagal.
Prosceutors argued that while the credit of the complainant, Ms Holtznagal, ‘has been brought into contention’, that Mr Reeves ‘was at those locations’.
‘If the court was to accept there were six incidents across a period of two to three months, it would be the prosecutors’ argument that it wasn’t a coincidence, (Mr Reeves) would have to be … aware it would cause a reasonable person to fear,’ the [prosecution said.
However, Magistrate Bartley found that although Ms Holtznagal hadn’t lied, she was a ‘demonstrably unreliable’ witness and that on two of the six alleged incidents, CCTV had proven her account to be wrong.
He said the ‘incidents are too fleeting and too infrequent’ to be considered stalking with intent, and that Mr Reeves’ eye contact on different occasions with Ms Holtznagal ‘might have been because he’d seen her before so that triggered interest, or because she was attractive’.
His Honour said that Mr Reeve’s credit card records indicated he frequented both Sydney’s CBD and Bondi.
Outside the court, Mr Reeve’s lawyer said his client had been vindicated by the CCTV.
Ms Holtznagal and Mr Castano were reportedly dating since early 2022 but initially kept their romance under wraps.
They went public in May last year when they were seen passionately kissing at Mimi’s restaurant in Coogee and moved in together.
She wrote: ‘When you’ve never lived with a boy and now you live with your fifaboyfriend@ jonocastanoacero, in reference to Jono playing FIFA soccer with a friend on the couch amidst raucous laughter.
Ms Holtznagel recently went public with her relationship with celebrity trainer boyfriend Jono Castano (pictured)
Mr Castano is a personal trainer to the stars, having helped the likes of Rita Ora, Rebel Wilson, Michael Clarke, and Candice Warner, get into shape.
Ms Holtznagel has fronted international modelling campaigns for the likes of Guess Jeans and most recently appeared on TV in SAS Australia.
Castano and Holtznagel first met several years ago when she was one of the trainer’s highest profile clients
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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