Lizzie Buttrose: Socialite reveals wedding at fiances AVO hearing

SOCIALITE Lizzie Buttrose and her fiance Zoran Stopar revealed their wedding date at a court hearing in which he admitted to defacing photos of her and family members with the words “slut”, “whore” and “junkie”.

After pleading guilty to three charges including punching in Buttrose’s TV and a wall of her Sydney mansion, Stopar’s lawyer told the court the couple would be marrying on December 1.

Buttrose, 48, is the niece of media personality Ita Buttrose and has expressed a desire to be on the TV show Real Housewives of Sydney.

She would be marrying Stopar, a base jumper and mountain biker, while she holds an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) out against him.

It is understood that Stopar, who has worked as an estimator but who the court heard argued with Buttrose over finances, is the seventh man to whom she has been engaged.

Stopar, 38, asked magistrate Joanne Keogh if court orders she made against him would prevent the future newlyweds from moving to far north Queensland.

The court also heard that Buttrose, who has previously admitted being an alcoholic and prescription drug taker, has been receiving treatment for substance abuse.

A police statement of facts seen by news.com.au reveals that officers were called to the house in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Vaucluse where the couple live on September 17 this year.

On a videotaped walk through the house, Buttrose showed police several framed pictures of herself and her family covered with words and arrows.

“Police observed that several of the photographs had words written on them in texta,” the facts state. “These words included ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘junkie’, with arrows pointing to the victim and family members.”
Police, who have attended Buttrose’s house 13 times in the past ten months, arrested Stopar, who is also named as Zoran Mijazdevic, after he returned from overseas. He was later charged with six offences, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Buttrose.

But on Wednesday, following lengthy discussions, police prosecutor Sergeant Stephen Dayeian formally withdrew the assault charge, a charge of destroying Buttrose’s Steinway piano and another of stalk, intimidate or intend fear or physical harm.

At an AVO hearing last month, Buttrose had told the court she opposed the order and that on the day she was allegedly assaulted she had drunk a bottle of wine and several shots of a strong Croatian spirit.

She said she had then passed out in their backyard at Vaucluse and when Stopar picked her up to carry to bed, she had woken up and become violent in a “mind blowout”.

Police facts say that Buttrose and Stopar have been in an intimate relationship since April 2016.

On the morning of August 31 this year, Buttrose was in the kitchen of the Vaucluse house when she heard a loud bang coming from the bedroom.

On entering the bedroom she saw Stopar punching the screen of her television, causing it to shatter.

“As the morning went on, the accused and the victim became involved in further verbal arguments where it escalated to the point when the accused began filming the victim on his mobile phone,” the facts say.

Stopar then yelled at Buttrose, “you owe me money” and followed her around the house filming, becoming angry when she tried to move away.

His anger escalated and Stopar punched the hallway wall near the bedroom, making a 50cm by 50cm hole in the gyprock.

Police videoed the damaged wall, along with the defaced family photographs.

In custody after his arrest, Stopar made “full admissions” to punching the TV, the wall and writing offensive comments on the photographs.

During Wednesday’s hearing, as the couple sat next to each other, the court heard that the offences were “a matter where the victim has been struggling with alcohol and medication issues for 12 months”.

“The damage to the property took place in circumstances where there was friction on behalf of the defendant about the relationship ... not being able to work and ... extreme financial stress,” Stopar’s lawyer said.

He said the hole in the wall had been repaired, a new TV had been bought and that the words in texta on the photographs had been “easily removed”.

Magistrate Keogh placed Stopar on an 18 months good behaviour bond to be supervised by Community Corrections officers as they saw fit.

“You are committed to your relationship, it sounds as if you are because you are wanting to marry while you have that commitment burning strongly,” Ms Keogh told Stopar.

“Relationships and marriage have their own stresses. Other things can arise that can be more difficult.”

She set the AVO against Stopar on behalf of Buttrose for 12 months.

Asked by Stopar if it was okay that “we plan to move interstate to far north Queensland once we sell out house”, Ms Keogh replied: “Not a problem”.

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