Melissa Caddick’s husband charged with assault

Anthony Koletti, the husband of the deceased conwoman Melissa Caddick, has been charged with the assault of an elderly woman in Vaucluse.

The 73-year-old woman told police she had been assaulted by a man about 5pm on July 23 in Lighthouse Reserve, the cliff-top park that runs along much of the eastern side of Vaucluse.

The reserve is just streets away from the Dover Heights home Koletti and Caddick shared before her disappearance in 2020, and the last place she was seen before she vanished.

The woman did not require any medical treatment.

On Wednesday, Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command shared an appeal on Facebook that included a CCTV image of a man who they said could assist their inquiries into the assault.

Nine News approached Koletti on Wednesday evening as he left the Rose Bay hair salon where he works, but he refused to answer questions. About fifteen minutes later, at 6.30pm on Wednesday, Koletti handed himself in at Waverley Police Station and was charged with common assault.

Koletti was released on conditional bail and will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on September 5.

Caddick vanished in November 2020 following a raid on her house by the corporate watchdog. Her partial remains, contained in her running shoe, washed up on a beach three months later. In 2023, a coroner concluded she was dead, but the manner of her death remained inconclusive.

Over eight years, Caddick funded her extravagant lifestyle by stealing more than $23 million from her family and friends who thought they were investing in shares.

Koletti and Caddick married on New Year’s Eve in 2013. Following Caddick’s disappearance, Koletti claimed he was entitled to millions of dollars of his wife’s proceeds of crime, including her Gucci wedding dress, $7 million in shares, $2 million worth of jewellery, artworks, the $360,000 proceeds from the sale of their luxury cars, as well as two properties he claimed were valued at $20 million.

Koletti later abandoned his multimillion-dollar claim on his wife’s estate, with the court ruling he could keep his wedding ring, a watch and two of his wife’s dresses.

For a look back at Caddick’s cons and disappearance, listen to the 2022 podcast, Liar Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions, from investigative reporter Kate McClymont and Nine’s Tom Steinfort.

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