MUMBAI: West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle has won a defamation case against Australian publisher Fairfax Media over articles that claimed he exposed himself to a female massage therapist during the 2015 World Cup.
A jury in the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney ruled on Monday that the lurid accusations made by Fairfax Media newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times in a series of stories in January last year were not true.
Massage therapist Leanne Russell had told the hearing that Gayle exposed himself to her in Sydney in 2015.
During the six-day trial, Russell said that Gayle had partially exposed himself to her in a dressing room, leaving her “very upset”.
She contacted Fairfax Media after being angered when Gayle told a journalist “don’t blush, baby” in a television interview, the jury heard.
After less than two hours of deliberation, the jury found Fairfax media had failed to establish the truth of a series of reports its publications ran during the tournament.
The jury also found Fairfax had failed to establish that the allegation Gayle had propositioned the masseuse was “substantially true”. The jury also found that Fairfax was motivated by “malice” in publishing the stories.
A hearing over the amount of damages will be held on Tuesday.
Fairfax Media said it would investigate whether to appeal, claiming that the jury had been “misled in a way that prejudiced Fairfax”.
“It will cost the company a lot of money unless we can reverse it on appeal,” BBC quotes Peter Bartlett, a solicitor acting for the company, as having said.
“I came all the way from Jamaica to actually defend myself and my character as well. At the end of the day I’m very, very happy,” Reuters quotes Gayle as having told reporters outside the court after the win.
“I’m a good man. I’m not guilty.”
Gayle, 38, is among the world’s highest-profile cricketers and in August became the first player to reach 10,000 Twenty20 runs.
