Reality TV star Sam Wood refused bail on DV charges

Reality TV star Sam Wood has been transferred to Brisbane Correctional Centre under cover of darkness after he was refused bail on domestic violence charges.

It comes after a court yesterday heard the 46-year-old fitness entrepreneur from Melbourne had allegedly pushed and choked his wife Snezana at a luxury apartment in Noosa on Saturday.

Wood is defending the charges.

The former star of The Bachelor was denied bail and had been held at a remand centre on the Sunshine Coast until last night.

He has been charged with two domestic violence offences, assault occasioning bodily harm and strangulation in a domestic setting.  

Wood appeared in Maroochydore Magistrates Court via video link on Thursday, represented by his lawyer Matthew Cuskelly and supported by his father Andrew Wood and barrister David Cole.

Wood was wearing prison greens as he appeared on a screen played to the courtroom.

He appeared downcast, staring at the ground or at his hands as the court heard submissions for over an hour.

Wood transferred to prison

This morning, Wood woke to his first morning inside Brisbane Correctional Centre after 9News cameras captured a van entering the premises about 9pm on Thursday.

The prison is about 130 kilometres – or an almost two-hour drive – away from the Sunshine Coast where he was being held for the past week.

His new surroundings are primarily a holding and assessment facility where no high-profile inmates are being imprisoned.

Wood allegations heard in court

The court heard allegations that the incident had resulted from an argument about going to bed or packing for their departure the next day after Wood and his wife had returned from dinner.

In refusing bail, Magistrate Janelle Boegheim described the allegations as Wood having pushed Ms Wood with one hand into a wall and then to the ground, before grabbing the alleged victim around the neck “gripping tight and restricting the airway”.  

It’s alleged Ms Wood told police that she thought “that this was it, that her life was going to end”.  

Boegheim described strangulation as a “particularly grave form of violence”. 

Sergeant Jeanette Grigoris earlier told the court police had obtained a video-recorded statement from Ms Wood, who alleges she experienced “cessations of breath” and the “banging of her head on the floor... that she couldn’t breathe”.  

She said the alleged victim agreed with the charges being laid and police had obtained a recording of the Triple Zero call made during the incident by Eve Markoski-Wood, Ms Wood’s daughter and Wood’s stepdaughter.

The prosecution tendered photographs of the alleged victim’s injuries as well as medical evidence, including statements by paramedics.

Cuskelly questioned the nature of the medical evidence tendered to the court, arguing it was "unusual given the alleged nature of what is being asserted... the absence of any photos of the neck area".

“Given that that seems to be the central focus of the alleged assault one would have assumed that the investigators would have photographed that particular area but they are absent your honour,” Cuskelly said.

Grigoris countered that non-fatal strangulation frequently did not leave visible injuries.

In describing the incident, Cuskelly told the court Wood had “pushed (Ms Wood) away”.

“Ultimately as all families have, there was problems... there was hostilities, and the complainant has moved towards him and continued to yell at him.”

Cuskelly told the court there was “a denial in respect to the strangulation”.

Cuskelly told the court his client had no prior history of offending.

He said Wood had been assessed by forensic and clinical psychologist Professor Ian Coyle as suffering from “severe depression”.

The court heard Wood had not previously disclosed his depressive disorder to his family to protect them.

Cuskelly submitted Wood should be given the opportunity to live with his father in Victoria, access mental health support and salvage his professional career which he said was “taking a hell of a beating at the moment”.

In opposing bail, Grigoris argued Wood was an unacceptable risk of interfering with witnesses and that if he were to be bailed to Victoria there would be an increased risk he would fail to return to Queensland “taking into account his financial resources and his significant community profile”.

She submitted that if Wood was found guilty a term of imprisonment in the range of two years was likely.

Business partners walk away

A Wood family statement was posted on social media on Monday addressing the charges.

“This is a difficult time for all of us,” the statement, posted to both Wood and Ms Wood's accounts, read.

“We are working through this as a family and are thoroughly co-operating with the authorities.”

Read more

Parent company ‘terminates all arrangements’ with celebrity fitness star after DV charges

Wood gained a national profile as a star of The Bachelor’s third season in 2015, where he met future wife Snezana. 

He later launched a successful home fitness business, 28 By Sam Wood, and sold it in 2022 for reportedly more than $70 million but remained the face of the online platform.  

In recent days, fitness identities have moved to distance themselves from the influencer.

DBG Health, the parent company that purchased his home fitness business in 2022 for a reported $71 million, announced they have “terminated all arrangements” with the founder.

Mark Watkin, 28 Group’s chief operating officer, would lead the business in Wood’s absence, it said.

“We have all been shocked and saddened by the matters involving Sam Wood,” Watkin said in a separate statement.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).