As 73-year-old Julie Brandon was walking her dog during a peaceful park stroll, she claims she was violently shoved to the grass.
Her alleged attacker, Anthony Koletti, is the husband of Melissa Caddick, a self-styled financial adviser who vanished in 2020 and is presumed dead after defrauding $23 million from family and friends.
The 44-year-old hair stylist is accused of shoulder-barging Ms Brandon from behind and failing to stop as he went on his own evening walk in July 2025.
"All of a sudden this person barged into my shoulder and then I fell over onto the ground,” Ms Brandon testified during a hearing at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday.
“I fell down onto my left butt cheek - I was quite shocked actually.”
Koletti has pleaded not guilty to one charge of common assault laid over the incident in a cliff-side park in Vaucluse in Sydney's east.
Ms Brandon was out for a walk with her then friend Ericka Van Aalst in a reserve not far from the Dover Heights home Koletti shared with Caddick before her disappearance.
Ms Van Aaslt testified she did not see the shove before her friend fell into her.
But Ms Brandon denied suggestions from Koletti's lawyer Zali Burrows that she tripped or made up the incident.
The two women took photographs of the man who allegedly pushed Ms Brandon as he walked away and then returned half an hour later.
After being invited to Waverley police station a week after the alleged assault, Koletti admitted he was the person in the photographs.
The court heard about friction between the two elderly friends after the incident, with Ms Van Aaslt saying she felt stressed trying to assist her friend while juggling serious medical issues.
She told the court Ms Brandon told her soon after the alleged assault she would lose a lot of money and threatened to end their friendship if Ms Van Aalst did not make a police statement.
However, Ms Brandon denied mentioning money at all, saying she had not filed any victim's compensation claim.
She admitted pressuring her sick friend to go to the police.
“I was very upset she hadn't given a statement," she told the court.
“And that's more important than the friendship?” Ms Burrows asked.
”I don’t know what to say to that," Ms Brandon replied.
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Burrows unsuccessfully tried to get body-worn footage of Koletti's police interview thrown out, saying her client had been lured to the station and entrapped.
The hair stylist said he presumed police wanted to talk to him about his wife's belongings after being invited to the station by the officer in charge of investigating her disappearance.
But he was then taken into an interview room by two other officers and grilled over the alleged assault.
“I would have called a lawyer if I had known," he testified in court on Thursday.
"I had no idea, I was shocked.”
He said he was taken by surprise and made the admissions while intimidated and under duress.
But Judge Scott Nash allowed the footage to be tendered as evidence, saying Koletti had been cautioned and understood what was going on.
The judge will hear closing submissions on Friday.
