Matthew Newton fails to show in court on assault charges

Matthew Newton has failed to appear in court on charges of assaulting a taxi driver.

The 35-year-old Underbelly actor, who has been in and out of a mental health clinic since allegedly attacking former girlfriend Rachael Taylor in 2010, was due to face two charges of common assault in Sydney today (January 31) following an incident with the 66-year-old man last month.

However, Newton's lawyer Chris Murphy has said that the public appearance would threaten to damage his recovery, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Murphy said that the taxi driver was "uninjured" in the December incident and described the matter as "the weakest assault case I have seen in 40 years".

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The court was told that two eye witnesses claimed that Newton did not attack the driver. Murphy also said that hundreds of photographs of the alleged incident from a CCTV camera showed that "there was no assault".

Court documents say that Newton is alleged to have punched the taxi driver twice in the left hand side of the neck and twice to the head.

Murphy asked that the case be adjourned for at least four months while the actor continues to receive treatment for bipolar and obsessive compulsive disorder, but the magistrate put it on hold for only eight weeks.

Newton is now due to appear in North Sydney Local Court on March 27.

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