source : the age
The AFL and former Carlton president Luke Sayers have been given the opportunity to keep key parts of material relating to the league’s investigation into the businessman’s explicit-picture scandal secret in Sayers’ defamation battle with his estranged wife, Cate.
The Supreme Court has ordered that Luke Sayers and the AFL be allowed to claim legal privilege over material relating to the league’s January 2025 investigation into the affair, which cleared him of any wrongdoing following what he said was the hacking of his X account.
The case centres on a photograph of Sayers’ penis that was posted on his X account for 13 minutes on January 8, 2025. He was subjected to an investigation by the AFL integrity unit following the post, for which he provided a statutory declaration outlining how he claimed the post came about.
Luke Sayers told representatives of the AFL and Carlton in that January 22, 2025, statutory declaration that Cate was responsible for the post, and that she was mentally unwell. His barrister, Matt Collins, KC, told the court in May this year that his client “published a statutory declaration in good faith … that Ms Sayers published the X post, though she denied doing so”.
Justice Andrew Watson has also this week modified the nature of materials that four key parties to the high-stakes defamation battle must provide to the court.
In May, subpoenas were served on the AFL; Carlton; the AFL’s now executive general manager of corporate affairs, Sharon McCrohan; and Luke Sayers’ long-time personal assistant, Julie Trainor, to produce material to the court relating to the explicit-picture affair and ensuing AFL investigation.
In the fresh modifications to those subpoenas, the court has also homed in on material relating to the production and handling of the statutory declaration that Luke Sayers provided to the AFL.
The former PwC boss has maintained that his X account was hacked and that the published picture, which tagged a senior marketing executive at Carlton sponsor Bupa, had been taken for medical purposes.
Luke Sayers’ statutory declaration now forms the basis of Cate Sayers’ defamation case. The sworn document declared that her denials about posting the explicit picture could not be trusted, that she suffered from mental illness and that at times she refused to take her medication. It also contained a request that neither the police nor the AFL interview her.
In court filings, Cate Sayers has already questioned the AFL’s investigation and Carlton’s internal processes related to the scandal, claiming they were “not conducted adequately or honestly”.
“The AFL … worked closely with Carlton and Luke directly to provide an outcome that publicly exonerated Luke,” she has told the court.
It was recently revealed that a draft of the key statutory declaration was sent to the AFL before a sworn version was submitted to the league as part of its investigation.
AFL general counsel Stephen Meade and the Tony Keane-led AFL integrity unit have also been named in this week’s revisions to the subpoenas.
Under the fresh orders, once all materials have been given to the court, Luke Sayers and the AFL have been given the opportunity to examine them and claim privilege over any documents provided in response to the subpoenas. Cate Sayers and her lawyers will then have the chance to challenge those privilege claims.
That sets the scene for a fierce court battle between the parties over what can and cannot be used as evidence in the defamation case, which is now expected to run well into next year.
A hearing is scheduled for mid-August.
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