Nine ordered to pay defamed swim coach
September 18, 2006 05:07pm
Article from: AAP
AUSTRALIA'S former top swimming coach, Greg Hodge, has won more than $320,000 in damages after suing Channel 9 for defamation.
Acting New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Rex Smart today said the network's A Current Affair (ACA) program had broadcast a segment which was "highly defamatory" of Mr Hodge.
When the program aired in October 2003, Mr Hodge was the high performance director for Australian Swimming, with responsibility for the Olympic team.
In the segment, former swim student Emma Fuller claimed the swim coach behaved inappropriately towards her when she was a 12-year-old boarder in his Sydney home in the mid-1990s.
In 2004, a jury found the program contained three defamatory imputations, including that Mr Hodge was portrayed as "a pervert who had preyed upon Emma Fuller while she was a child under his care and protection".
The jury found Mr Hodge was also defamed by imputations that he "had engaged in constant acts of physical contact of a sexual nature" upon the girl and "had so misconducted himself in his sexual attentions towards Emma Fuller that he was unfit" to train Australia's Olympic swimmers.
Lawyers for the defendants, the Nine Network and Channel Nine, relied on the defence that the claims were substantially true and in the public interest.
But Acting Justice Smart said: "The defendants have not established the substantial truth of many of the facts stated."
He found "the personal distress and hurt (Mr Hodge) suffered" was considerable and that significant reparation was required for the harm done to his reputation.
Mr Hodge felt shunned as a result of the broadcast, was depressed and restricted to his home, the court was told.
The judge ordered the Nine Network to pay Mr Hodge $321,337 in damages, plus interest to be calculated.
Acting Justice Smart said the broadcasting of the program had "serious consequences" for Mr Hodge, who was banned from contact with members of the Australian swimming squad while the matter was investigated.
Mr Hodge said he was not allowed to have contact with coaches or athletes, and felt obliged to resign from Australian Swimming.
The judge said that as the Nine Network knew Mr Hodge was a highly esteemed senior swimming coach and regarded as an upstanding citizen, an adequate investigation of the allegations was required.
"That did not occur and that was unjustifiable," he said.
Mr Hodge, who now works overseas, was not in court for today's decision.
