Court warns Dank starting "something of a juggernaut"
Date
August 7, 2013 - 1:40PM
Stephanie Gardiner
Reporter
Warning: A court told sports scientist Stephen Dank he may be starting ''something of a juggernaut.'' Photo: Tim Clayton
A NSW Supreme Court judge has warned the man at the centre of the national drugs in sport controversy to carefully consider his numerous defamation claims, saying he has launched "something of a juggernaut".
In an interlocutory judgment handed down on Wednesday, Justice Lucy McCallum ordered proceedings sports scientist Stephen Dank brought against two medical professionals, endocrinologist Professor Kenneth Ho and leading sports doctor Dr Peter Larkin, be struck out.
But she granted leave allowing Mr Dank to replead his case against the men, who were quoted in News Ltd articles about NRL player Jon Mannah.
The court heard the articles stemmed from a story published in the Daily Telegraph in April, detailing a leaked report which warned the Sharks of an "apparent causal link" between the administering of peptides and the cancer death of Mannah.
Mannah recovered from a first bout of Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2009 to play the first five NRL matches of 2011, but died aged 23 earlier this year.
Mr Dank later publicly confirmed Mannah received supplements during his time at Cronulla in 2011, but says he never compromised the player's health and consulted with a leading oncologist.
Mr Dank is suing various parties including the newspaper's editor, Paul Whittaker, Nationwide News, Channel Nine and the Cronulla Sharks.
After her ruling, Justice McCallum noted the scale of Mr Dank's defamation claims.
"There are multiple defendants, multiple proceedings and multiple legal teams and a huge number of imputations," she said.
"I would urge the plaintiff to give careful consideration to the way in which the claims are submitted with a view to bringing to the court a report . . . [dealing with] the real issues."
