Matthew Newton recovering in US

Matthew Newton is recovering in the USA his solicitor told a court today in Sydney.

Chris Murphy told a magistrate at North Sydney Local Court the 34 year old performer was living in a “peaceful, Midwestern community” in the USA.

“There has been a ferocity of attention that according to two psychiatrists makes his geographical location here very difficult in terms of living in the community,” he said.

“This is a man who has probably been mentally ill all his life, according to doctors.”

Newton is charged with punching taxi driver Mohsen Khayami, 66, in the left side of the neck while seated in his taxi at Crows Nest in northern Sydney on December 4. The former Underbelly star allegedly grabbed the driver’s shirt and then punched him in the head after the pair got out on the roadway.

Murphy said Newton was taking a “bomb load of medication”, for bipolar and obsessive compulsive disorder, including an anti-psychotic, a mood stabiliser and an anti-depressant.

He appeared to be suffering from “obvious side effects” of the medication, and two days before the alleged incident the times he took the drugs were changed, he said.

“This occurred when his mental illness was at its worst,” he told the magistrate.

But Magistrate Ellen Skinner said she hadn’t been given any evidence that Newton had actually been diagnosed with the conditions or that he was taking the drug cocktail as claimed.

An application to have the charges dealt with under the Mental Health Act has been adjourned until tomorrow.

Under this section, charges can be dismissed, either entirely or with conditions, including undergoing treatment.

Reports of a new romance in Newton’s life were also denied by Murphy.

Meanwhile 73 year old Bert Newton has returned home from Singapore, where he was performing in Wicked and suffering from a potentially-fatal case of pneumonia he thought was the flu. Daughter Lauren gave birth to her third child on Sunday, with husband former Olympic swimmer Matt Welsh.

Source: Daily Telegraph, SKY News, NineMSN, Herald Sun