Herald Sun failed to seek response from Victorian MP Sam Groth and wife before article that invaded privacy, court documents claim
|
Version 0 of 1. Groth and wife Brittany are suing a News Corp paper for defamation and breach of privacy over incorrect claims of inappropriate relationship Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Herald Sun failed to seek a response from Brittany Groth, the wife of Sam Groth, the Victorian Liberals deputy leader and former tennis star, before wrongly outing her as a victim of child sexual assault who was preyed upon by her now-husband when he was her coach, the couple allege in federal court documents. The Herald and Weekly Times, along with reporter Stephen Drill, who wrote the articles, and his editor Sam Weir, are being sued in the federal court by Brittany Groth, in the first test of a new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, and by Sam Groth for defamation. The couple’s statement of claim, which the federal court released to Guardian Australia on Tuesday, shows they will be seeking exemplary damages for the articles, which were published in late July this year. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The articles wrongly claimed that the couple met at a tennis club in suburban Melbourne and started a sexual relationship when Brittany was 16 or 17 and Sam was 23 or 24 and working as her coach, the documents say. The couple say the court should find that the damages suffered by them were significant, given the articles remained online, the company had not published Brittany Groth’s statement denying the allegations, had published the articles on social media and allowed comments on them and on the online articles, and had “instructed their solicitors to send [a] …letter, which contained inaccurate, upsetting and offensive content”. According to the documents filed in August, the 30 July letter from HWT’s solicitors, Thomson Geer, said: “[T]here are many instances in which children have consented to such relationships, only to realise years or decades later that they were not appropriate. That includes circumstances where the parties have married. So the mere fact that your clients are happily married does not render Mr Groth’s conduct at the time appropriate. “It goes without saying that matters relating to sexual contact between adults and children have been an enormous issue of public discussion in recent decades. “A key feature of public discussion on those issues is the perniciousness of silence. For too long institutions and powerful individuals have turned a blind eye to inappropriate or questionable behaviour. The Herald Sun is not willing to take that approach in this case.” There has not been a hearing in the case, and the HWT, Drill or Weir have not yet been required to file a defence. Sam Groth was defamed, the documents claim, because the articles contained imputations including that he sexually assaulted Brittany when she was under 18, committed a crime of sexual assault of a minor under his care or supervision, and committed a criminal offence by commencing his relationship with her when she was 16 or 17. According to the documents, the articles contained information that intentionally or recklessly resulted in a serious breach of Brittany Groth’s privacy. The documents also say the identity of an alleged child victim of sexual assault is an inherently strictly private matter, that it “is not considered to be in the public interest by ordinary right-thinking members of the public to name and shame an alleged child victim of sexual assault without their consent” and that “had the alleged sexual assault been reported to the police, it would have in fact been unlawful in Victoria to name or otherwise identify Brittany”. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The public interest in Brittany’s privacy outweighed any countervailing public interest, the documents claim, saying this was underlined by the comments of six Victorian MPs who were critical of the article, including the premier Jacinta Allan and opposition leader Brad Battin. “Families shouldn’t be dragged into politics,” Allan said, with Battin adding: “Any attempt to besmirch the relationship of Sam, Britt and their children is a disgrace. Politics is a dirty business, but this attack has hit a new low in public life.” According to the documents, the damage to Sam Groth was aggravated because a third article about the couple was published after their lawyers had sent the company, Drill and Weir a concerns notice about the previous articles. The damage was also aggravated, the documents claim, because the articles referred to “multiple Liberal Party sources” but did not name one, and because the defendants sought to “justify the articles by attempting to persuade a senior politician to write an opinion piece supporting the publication of the articles (which no politician agreed to do)”. The Guardian has contacted the Herald Sun for comment. The Herald Sun’s editor, Sam Weir, has previously told the masthead: “We stand by our reporting on a matter of public interest, covering important issues which could have a major impact on Victorian politics in the lead-up to an election.” |