A troubled former Australian actor showed worrying behavioral signs, including grandiosity, while on bail on assault charges, a court has heard.

Orpheus Pledger, 31, appeared in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday to appeal a seven-month prison sentence imposed in August for twice assaulting a woman in March.

The former Home and Away star swapped the black hoodie from his last court appearance for a purple plaid shirt and appeared to have cut his hair and shaved.

His lawyers asked Judge Michael Tinney to sentence him to a community corrections order and for the 97 days he spent in custody to count as time served.

But Judge Tinney spoke of reports from Pledger’s bail monitors, saying it appeared “the wheels seem to be falling off”.

Pledger, the report said, had missed several appointments in the past two months and exhibited behavioral changes, including being overly talkative, talking off-topic, grandiose and euphoric, and self-adjusting his medication.

He denied relapsing into drug use, the court was told, but was not tested.

Judge Tinney said he was “deeply disturbed” by the development, noting that a psychiatrist had found that Pledger was at high risk of reoffending if he relapsed into drug use.

A troubled former Australian actor showed worrying behavioral signs, including grandiosity, while on bail on assault charges, a court has heard.

Orpheus Pledger, 31 (right), appeared in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday to appeal a seven-month prison sentence imposed in August for twice assaulting a woman in March.

“Its relevant functioning has deteriorated to the extent that it is described as worrying,” he said.

Pledger was arrested in March after attacking a woman twice that month.

One of the incidents was captured in part on a motion-activated camera, with Pledger pulling the woman by her hair to the ground and stomping on her head.

He was released on bail at the end of April to undergo a medical assessment due to concerns about his mental health, but went on the run and sparked a manhunt.

The 30-year-old actor was granted bail on Monday and taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Monday for a court-ordered medical assessment of his mental health.

Earlier, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told nurses at the hospital observed him muttering that he was going to “kill”.

Pledger pleaded guilty to reckless wounding and unlawful assault charges, with his lawyer explaining that Pledger’s drug use had increased in recent years.

“He certainly feels terrible about what happened and the impact it had,” said attorney Justin MacCuspie.

One of the incidents was captured in part on a motion-activated camera, with Pledger pulling the woman by her hair to the ground and stomping on her head.

Pledger began acting at the age of 9 in commercials and children’s series Silversun, before acting on Neighbors in 2011.

He later took on the role of Mason Morgan in Home and Away from 2016 to 2019 and most recently appeared as a contestant on SAS Australia in 2022.

Judge Tinney will rule on the appeal on Tuesday afternoon.