An Uber driver from Paris has described the night he picked up a bloodied and frightened Melissa George and took her to a police station after a violent altercation involving the Australian actress and her estranged husband.
This evening, Seven‘s Sunday Night program will air a heavily-promoted tell-all interview with George, who claims to be trapped in France thanks to an acrimonious custody dispute with husband Jean-David Blanc.
George and Blanc’s marriage ended last September after a row in their Paris apartment – both were convicted of assault after the incident, with a French court finding that each had attacked the other on the fateful night.
Uber driver Owais Atique picked George up at around 2.24am after she fled her home, and has told Sunday Night that he almost drove away on seeing her, assuming that she was a drunk until he saw bloodstains on her blouse.
Atique has alleged that he helped a tearful George into his Audi, with blood staining the window and door handle. The driver claims that she told him “he hit me”, adding:
“She was crying – just crying – and saying ‘I am scared, I am scared, please go … he will find me, I’m scared. I have my two babies in the apartment.’ I say to her ‘stay here, I will go.’ She said ‘no, my boys are with my babysitters … I want to go to the police station.’”
The driver said that George appeared to be in “a lot of pain”, and that the incident also left him in tears. He says he initially wanted to take George to the hospital, but she was adamant about going to the police station.
Atique was not familiar with George as an actress and said she was just “a normal customer” to him, but that she visited his father’s restaurant a some time later to thank him, and was “a very nice person.”
Blanc has denied attacking George on the night of the incident and is currently appealing his conviction, claiming that he was “forced to defend himself” against his wife.
TONIGHT 8:30: Assaulted, hospitalised, trapped… Australian actress Melissa George is in the fight of her life. She’s breaking her silence. pic.twitter.com/o036IlPSHf
— sunday night (@sundaynighton7) March 18, 2017
Source: News Corp.
Photo: Foc Kan / Getty.
