NRL star Dylan Walker has denied causing his fiancée to fall down a driveway with a baby in her arms by pulling her ponytail, claiming that he merely "touched her shoulder … then she fell".
The 24-year-old Manly Sea Eagles player has pleaded not guilty to a charge of domesticviolence-related assault occasioning actual bodily harm, following an incident in December that left his fiancée Alexandra Ivkovic with grazes to her shoulder, leg and feet.
Walker told Manly Local Court on Friday that a fight started with Ivkovic at their home after she asked him if he wanted a spoon or a fork to eat dinner while he was playing his PlayStation.
He said he followed her after she left the home and asked her to come back inside.
"I just reached out with my left hand to touch her shoulder, just turning her towards me," Walker said, according to AAP. "Then she fell, fell onto the ground."
Ivkovic initially told New South Wales police that she was pulled by her ponytail to the ground while cradling the baby, but said she recalled things differently later on in February.
"When I fell, I thought at the time that he had grabbed my hair but then I realised that he didn't," Ms Ivkovic said in court.
She said Walker had reached out to grab her shoulder and her hair got in the way.
