Peter Sean Buckley defence to argue ex had a tendency to spontaneous violence in interpersonal relationships

The bikini model ex-girlfriend of a high profile automotive chain boss accused of stalking and assault “set up” her former partner and sought to extort him, his defence will argue. Ultra Tune boss Peter Sean Buckley faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday as part of a long-running trial over allegations he stalked and assaulted his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Cruz Cole, who previously worked as one of his company’s controversial “rubber girls”. Mr Buckley was first charged in 2020 after Ms Cole accused him of “punching her in the face 10 times”, but his defence lawyers are set to argue that she had a history of inciting violent incidents and was attempting to extort Mr Buckley. Three separate incidents from 31 July 2018, 23 October 2018 and 7 January 2019 will be the basis for Mr Buckley’s defence team, led by Dermott Dann KC. The defence will argue that this tendency supports Mr Buckley’s narrative around an alleged assault at Crown Casino in January 2020 wherein he claimed that he was part of a set-up orchestrated by Ms Cole to extort him to the tune of millions of dollars. A covert recording was made by Ms Cole in a hotel room which allegedly caught Mr Buckley hitting and choking Ms Cole. “We say that, that in fact was a set-up so to speak, perpetrated by Ms Cole for the purposes of extortion,” Mr Dann said. Defence will argue that Mr Buckley noticed the phone and attempted to grab it, then they claim she “falsely” said she was being struck and she instead “assaults him” before he tried to douse the phone in water. Magistrate Malcolm Thomas said that the tendency evidence could make the “fanciful” narrative presented in Mr Buckley’s defence seem “less fanciful”. Mr Buckley faces one stalking charge after a second charge was dropped on Monday, and also faces charges including “make threat to kill”, “common law assault” and “maintain a listening device”. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His co-accused, Wade D’Andrea, also appeared in court for two charges, one for stalking another person and the other for maintaining a listening device. Ms Cole was a Ultra Tune “rubber girl” and appeared in racy ads for the company that featured women in skin-tight outfits, including one alongside Pamela Anderson. Ultra Tune has more than 270 franchises nationwide and turns over $220m each year. Mr Buckley will reappear in court on Wednesday.