Dan Wyllie is supported by friends at Bondi Beach after not-guilty verdict

Actor Dan Wylie is settling back into normal life after being cleared of assaulting his estranged wife, director Shannon Murphy, last month. 

The Love My Way star, 51, looked upbeat despite sporting a leg brace as he went for a stroll in Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Thursday, in his first public sighting since his not-guilty verdict on February 9.

Dan was joined by musician Dave Galafassi – whose wife, Toni Collette, was a character witness at his trial – as well as actor Christopher’ Kick’ Gurry and his former Offspring co-star Alexander England.  

The men appeared to be offering their friend moral support as he rebuilds his life following the high-profile court case.

Dan, who has appeared in several Australian dramas including the critically acclaimed Secret City, wore grey shorts and a T-shirt. 

While his pals carried beach bags and surfboards, Dan avoided any heavy lifting – perhaps due to his leg injury.  

He has kept a relatively low profile since he was cleared of assaulting his estranged wife, Shannon Murphy, in their Woollahra apartment. 

In an extraordinary twist, it was photos showing yoghurt dripping down his face that exposed a ‘fatal flaw’ in his wife’s claims and saw him cleared of the charges last month.

Ms Murphy had admitted tipping her dessert of yoghurt mixed with flax seeds on top of Dan on March 21 last year, after he refused to watch a movie with her at home following drinks with neighbours.

She then claimed Dan had assaulted her, and a Sydney court heard allegations he pushed her into the hallway, repeatedly punched her and forced her against the ground so hard she feared her jaw was ‘going to snap’.   

However, Dan’s barrister Peggy Dwyer argued in closing submissions that Ms Murphy had made out the assault to be ‘one continuous event’ and had neglected to mention the actor had paused to shoot pictures and video of himself splattered in yoghurt.

‘She’s been caught out directly in what could only be a bald lie,’ Ms Dwyer said.

Ms Murphy claimed she ‘instantly regretted’ pouring the yoghurt on him, that Dan was furious, that she demanded to see his phone but he then pushed her across the hall and began assaulting her, the court heard. 

But her alleged failure to mention Dan had stopped to take photos and a video was a ‘significant omission’ in Ms Murphy’s recount of what happened, Ms Dwyer argued.

The court heard ‘no explanation’ of how the photos and short clip came about in Ms Murphy’s seven statements to police.

Dan always denied the assault charge, telling the first police investigator who called him about the incident that he had acted only in self defence to restrain his wife, and to prevent her from hurting herself, according to a document filed in court. 

The police prosecutor told the court that the inconsistencies in Ms Murphy account were ‘minor’ and argued she was a truthful witness.

But Magistrate Elks said Ms Murphy was ‘less than honest’ about what had happened that night and noted she was the original aggressor.  

‘I form the view that she was being less than honest with the court in relation to what truly occurred,’ the magistrate said.

In his decision, Magistrate Elks recounted Ms Murphy’s version of events, where the couple had evening drinks with neighbours before returning to their Woollahra flat.

Dan went to the spare room and refused to watch a movie with Ms Murphy, who then went into the kitchen to get yoghurt for dessert, Magistrate Greg Elks recalled.

But then ‘[Ms Murphy] admitted to tipping the yoghurt with flax seed over his head,’ the judge said in his decision.

Ms Murphy claimed Dan was furious about the yoghurt attack, told her ‘it’s over, you f**king b***h’, and stormed into the bathroom, according to the magistrate’s summary of her claims.

Ms Murphy alleged she then went to reach for Wyllie’s phone to see what he’d been looking at in the room. She then claimed Wyllie threw her into the hallway.

Ms Murphy alleged that Wyllie pinned her against the wall, with an artwork behind her falling to the ground. She then claimed he had hit her from behind and rained up to 10 blows down on her.

At one point, she claimed to briefly black out. At another, she claimed her head was pushed to the floor so hard she felt her jaw was ‘going to snap’, the magistrate said.

But Dan – who the court heard lost work due to the charges – always denied his wife’s version of events and the charges against him were dismissed.

The police prosecutor had described Ms Murphy as an ‘honest’ witness who ‘gave an open and frank concession’ to the court about striking her husband with the phone.

‘She wasn’t proud of her actions, she acknowledges she was the instigator,’ he said.

However, the magistrate had a different characterisation of what sort of witness she was.

Mr Elks described Ms Murphy ‘as an evasive witness who was prone to not answering questions that were asked’, instead giving lengthy answers that portrayed her in a better light.

‘She was not an impressive witness and I formed the opinion she had tailored her evidence to suit a scenario in which she had been the original aggressor,’ the magistrate said.

In his decision, Magistrate Elks said he was also ‘unsettled’ by a revelation that Ms Murphy had told police at one point what she’d told them earlier wasn’t true.

‘A lie is a lie and that does cast a great pall over the complainant’s evidence,’ the magistrate said.  

The magistrate added each police officer who saw her following the incident recorded seeing no visible injuries to Ms Murphy.

‘The raining down of 10 blows by the defendant would have resulted, in my view, in significant injury. Clearly in the photographs there is not significant injury,’ the magistrate found.

At one point, actress Toni Colette was dragged into the proceedings as a character witness for Dan in the high-profile case.