TV hunk admits brutal attack on woman
A former Home and Away heart-throb has admitted to bashing a woman during a suspected mental health crisis.
Orpheus Pledger returned before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday via videolink wearing a green prison jumper.
He kept his head down as details of the attack were read to the court.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to assault and injury charges after the early-morning attack at a Northcote home on March 25.
The court was told the woman called triple-0 at 1.35am to raise concerns Pledger was suffering a “mental health episode” before disconnecting the line and saying, “he’s coming.”
Officers arrived 15 minutes later, finding the woman lying on the floor of her home unable to get up and Pledger nowhere in sight.
She was taken to hospital, where doctors noted large bruising and “diamond-shaped” print marks on her head, alongside scratch marks and bruising on her neck, the court heard.
A motion-capture camera caught the attack, with Pledger seen grabbing the woman’s hair, pulling her to the ground and stomping on her head.
He was arrested the following day but was deemed unable to be interviewed due to “erratic behaviour”, the court was told.
Pledger was released the following month for a court-ordered medical assessment amid concerns for his mental health before fleeing the hospital on April 23 after waiting for six and a half hours.
Hospital staff noted at the time he was in a “quite elevated” state, the court was told.
Slightly over an hour later he walked back into the woman’s home and told her “why, I haven’t done anything”, when asked to leave.
A public appeal was issued by police before he was arrested two days later and returned to custody.
His lawyer, Jasper MacCuspie, told the court it was conceded the offending was “serious” but said it was the type of case often seen in Victoria’s courts.
He said Pledger had begun acting at the age of eight or nine but had fallen in with “anti-social peers” and his drug use escalated in his late 20s when he was declined a role on The 100 in the US.
Mr MacCuspie said his client was motivated to turn his life around and wanted to resume his acting career but noted it would be difficult due to media scrutiny of the offending.
The court was told Pledger had not been given a formal mental health diagnosis, but advised his lawyer the offending occurred during a “breakdown … exasperated by the drug use”.
Mr MacCuspie called for the court to release his client on a community corrections order with supports, noting he had now spent 94 days in custody.
Pledger, the court was told, had a long acting career from commercials and children’s series Silversun as a child, to a stint on Neighbours in 2011 and the role of Mason Morgan in Home and Away from 2016 to 2019.
Most recently, he was a contestant on Channel 7’s SAS Australia in 2022 before voluntarily leaving the show.
Magistrate Justin Foster has indicated he will adjourn the matter to allow for Pledger to be assessed for a community corrections order.
“At the moment the court doesn’t know if it’s a mental health or drug issue,” he said.
Pledger will return to court on Wednesday when he is likely to be sentenced.
