One of the state’s leading businessmen has been charged with choking, strangling and attacking a former female partner.
Hospitality identity Steven Albert Kidd, 44, of Unley, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday, accused of multiple domestic violence assaults over more than two years.
Police allege Mr Kidd, behind some of the city’s most popular venues and a leading building company, attacked the woman four times between October 2020 and December 2022.
He has yet to plead to three counts each of aggravated assault against own child or spouse but without a weapon and a further charge of choke, suffocate or strangle a person in a domestic setting.
Court documents allege the attacks occurred in the city and one of Adelaide’s most affluent suburbs, where he lives.
Detectives arrested him on February 5 this year.
Outside court on Thursday, Mr Kidd declined to comment as he walked away briskly.
During an application to vary his bail earlier, the court granted permission for Mr Kidd to travel interstate for work purposes, involving the construction of a new building.
Court documents state Scottish-born Mr Kidd allegedly first attacked the woman, who is not being named, during a four-week period in October 2020 at Adelaide.
The documents, which a magistrate released, state police further assert another assault on February 20, 2021 and then allegedly again nine months later on November 7 that year in the same location.
Prosecutors say this is an “aggravated offence”, meaning they consider it a more serious offence due to the offending circumstances that then can provoke harsher penalties if proven.
“It is further alleged that (Mr) Kidd committed the offence knowing that (the woman) was a person with whom he was, or was formerly, in a relationship,” a charge sheet states.
Eastern Districts detectives further charged him with another alleged attack between New Year’s Day 2022 and New Year’s Eve that year at Unley, in the inner southern suburbs.
Police allege that “being or having been in a relationship with (the woman) unlawfully choked, suffocated or strangled (her) without her consent,” police said.
On Thursday, Mr Kidd’s counsel asked for a bail variation so his client could travel to Sydney between May 21 and 23 inclusive for work purposes.
“The defendant is a person who has control of substantial property … and tomorrow afternoon is changeover for a building to be constructed at a place called Rouse,” counsel said.
“It’s called Beyond Bank, it’s a brand-new building … and that’s the reason why he has to travel interstate.”
The court heard prosecution wasn’t opposed to the bail variation, as long as a travel itinerary was provided.
Magistrate Patrick Hill granted the application for Mr Kidd to travel to Sydney and adjourned his case until July, where he will be expected to enter pleas.
He faces a maximum 10 years in jail if found guilty of this offence and up to three years in prison if found guilty of the assaults.
State law outlines that a relationship is when two people are married to each other, domestic partners or “they are in some other form of intimate personal relationship in which their lives are interrelated and the actions of one affects the other”.
Mr Kidd, who was once named among the “40 under 40” top business people, is managing director of the family’s multimillion-dollar property maintenance company Pinnacle.
Company records show he established in December 2016 the Kidd Retail Group, which designs, builds and manages venues.
These include Lady Burra Brewhouse Bar & Kitchen, which houses Adelaide’s only city centre microbrewery, the adjacent The Noble Gentleman, Two Suns Rooftop above the Topham Mall sites and the nearby Frequency venue.
Kidd Retail Group also includes venues Bucko, on Currie St as well as Bckyrd and Girl Next Door, both on Peel St.