A photographer accused Taylor Swift‘s dad, Scott Swift, of punching him as he tried to take her photo in Australia in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The singer was met by photographers in Sydney as she left a superyacht in Neutral Bay Wharf following her final show of the Eras Tour Australian leg.
“Police have been told a 71-year-old man allegedly assaulted a 51-year-old man at Neutral Bay Wharf about 2.30am before leaving the location,” a New South Wales Police spokesperson told Business Insider. “The younger man reported the incident and inquiries are now underway by officers attached to North Shore Police Area Command.”
A spokesperson for Swift told Business Insider: “Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water.”
The photographer, Ben McDonald, called the claims “utter rubbish” in a statement to Daily Mail Australia.
“This is the sort of bullshit I might expect. Which female was that? The only one there was Taylor,” he said.
“In 23 years, I haven’t been assaulted and punched in the chops, particularly by the talent’s dad,” McDonald told the Associated Press.
He alleged in the interview that Swift’s security team initiated the incident by shoving umbrellas at his camera, adding that he didn’t know who punched him at first.
“Someone else came running at me and punched me in the left side of my face. Initially, I thought it was an Australian security that was trying to be the hero of the moment in the front of the Americans, but as it turned out it was her father,” McDonald said.
“We didn’t go rushing down the jetty. We didn’t go rushing to the back of the boat. We waited for her to come up. Kept it very civil,” he claimed.
This isn’t the first time McDonald has made headlines. In 2005, Nicole Kidman was given a temporary restraining order against the photographer after a listening device was found outside her home in Sydney, per The Telegraph.
At the time, Kidman’s team issued a statement, saying: “Nicole would like to make it clear that she acknowledges she is a public figure and that reporters and photographers have a job to do and she respects that.”
The statement continued: “However, these are specific actions against two individuals who, over a period of time, have caused her to feel threatened, intimidated and unable to leave her home without fearing for her safety.”
At the time, McDonald’s lawyer issued a statement saying: “He denies emphatically he has anything to do with planting any listening device.”
Ben McDonald’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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