Former Home and Away actor Orpheus Pledger has pleaded guilty to a violent attack on a woman in Melbourne’s northern suburbs earlier this year.
Pledger, 31, who featured as Mason Morgan in Home and Away from 2016 to 2019, listened in to Monday’s Melbourne Magistrates’ Court hearing via video-link from custody.
ABC reports the court heard the victim – who cannot be identified for legal reasons- called Triple-0 in the early hours of March 25, requesting police assistance because she believed Pledger was suffering a mental health episode.
When police arrived 15 minutes later, they found the victim on the floor, unable to get up, with bruises on her head and hand, lacerations on her face and signs of strangulation.
Pledger was arrested and released on bail on the condition he underwent a mental health assessment at Royal Melbourne Hospital. However, after stretched police and health resources forced him to wait almost 24 hours for assessment, Pledger left hospital, triggering an arrest warrant.
Lawyer Jasper MacCuspie said the actor’s mental health had declined after he missed out on a role in US show The 100, triggering the recreational use of methylamphetamine, which his lawyer conceded contributed to his offending.
Magistrate Foster said time was needed before sentencing 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.
He is expected to be sentenced on July 3.
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