Christopher H. Gayle wins 'emotional' defamation suit
The jury of three women and one man today, October 30, 2017 determined it was not true that Gayle exposed his genitalia to Leanne Russell and indecently propositioned her in the West Indies team dressing room during a training session at the 2015 World Cup.
The jury also found Fairfax was motivated by malice when it published the allegations in a series of articles in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Canberra Times.
Gayle sued Fairfax over a series of articles, published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Canberra Times over the claims, which were alleged to have occurred in the change rooms at Drummoyne Oval on February 11, 2015.
Outside court today, Gayle expressed satisfaction the jury believed his story that he did not expose himself.
“Yes that was 100 per cent true, no, no, no,” he said.
He said he was very happy the jury found in his favour for all four questions that were put to them.
“I came this far all the way from Jamaica to actually defend myself and at the end of the day I’m very very happy.
“I just want to thank the legal team they did a great job.”
Gayle said the stories published by Fairfax and the defamation case were, “very emotional,” for him.
“I’m glad the public had a chance to read things and they can hear what transpired in the courtroom,” he said.
Later this afternoon, Fairfax Media released a statement, saying it was now looking at appealing.
“Fairfax Media is concerned with the conduct of the trial to the extent that on Friday it sought an order that the jury be discharged and a new trial ordered,” a spokesman said.
“The Judge accepted that the jury had been misled in a way that prejudiced Fairfax, but declined to discharge the jury.
“Fairfax believes that it did not get a fair trial. It is seriously considering its appeal rights.”
Fairfax considering appeal
Following the verdict, Fairfax lawyer Peter Bartlett from Minter Ellison said the verdict: “could cost the company a lot of money unless we can reverse it on appeal”.
During proceedings masseuse Leanne Russell gave tearful evidence that she walked into the change room looking for a sandwich and found Gayle wearing a towel.
She claimed he pulled the towel down, partially exposing his penis and said, “are you looking for this?”
“I saw the top half of his penis, apologies, and I therefore shielded my view and left the change room,” she told the court.
Ms Russell said afterwards she fled into the stands, “very upset.”
“I was crying uncontrollably, I was crying like a child,” she said.
Gayle gave evidence denying the allegations and said he was never in the change room wearing a towel.
His teammate, Dwayne Smith who was also in the change room at the time of the alleged incident, also denied Gayle exposed himself to Ms Russell. (The Daily Telegraph)
7 Responses to “Christopher H. Gayle wins 'emotional' defamation suit”
W....... always trying to screw rich black men either out of their money or their fame. Victory..Nice..Stay away from those W....... B.
That was a traumatic experience wondering how do you fit that LOL!
Weird can't describe this story..