Parramatta Eels chairman Steve Sharp applies for AVO against former teammate Terry Leabeater
Josh Massoud, EXCLUSIVE
The Daily Telegraph
July 22, 2014 8:02AM
PARRAMATTA chairman Steve Sharp has applied for an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against former teammate and 1986 grand final winner, Terry Leabeater.
In latest bout of drama to beset the perennially dysfunctional Eels, two police officers served Leabeater with AVO documents yesterday.
The Daily Telegraph has sighted Sharp’s application for the AVO, which will be heard in Parramatta Local on 5 August. Sharp is seeking to have Leabeater excluded from coming within 100 metres of Parramatta Leagues Club for the next two years.
The documents claim Sharp felt threatened and harassed after a series of exchanges with Leabeater through April and May. The exchanges occurred after Sharp moved to have Leabeater’s membership suspended, and included a fiery confrontation at the Club AGM on 5 May that ended with Leabeater being escorted from the premises.
It’s not the first time an AVO has been sought to separate warring rugby league identities. Last September Manly director Peter Peters applied for one against fellow board member Darrell Williams. It was withdrawn in February.
Leabeater and Sharp are on opposite sides of Parramatta’s political fault line, which has been volatile ever since Roy Spagnolo’s 3P ticket won control of the club in 2009.
Sharp ousted Spagnolo at the 2013 elections, with Leabeater claiming he congratulated the winners that very night and wished them luck.
A year later his relationship with Sharp had deteriorated. In mid-April the pair exchanged some terse e-mails, before Leabeater sent Sharp a furious text message on 15 April, which berated him for public remarks about Spagnolo.
It read in part: “You are a f...ing disgrace degenerating the greatest asset financially this club has ever had. You are an insecure little man who tells lies for personal gain and I am now your worst enemy . . .”
In the AVO documents, Sharp claims he immediately commenced disciplinary proceedings against Leabeater and sent him a letter advising that his membership had been provisionally suspended until 16 October 2014.
Leabeater claims he never received the letter, thus explaining his attendance at the AGM a few weeks later. Leabeater also says he was able to secure a replacement membership card from the front desk, having lost his old one.
He was given a voting paddle and proceeded to the meeting room, only to be confronted by club security a short time later and asked to leave. Leabeater did so, but not before approaching Sharp with a parting verbal volley. He also tossed the voting paddle in the chairman’s direction.
On 22 May Leabeater’s membership was suspended for five years.
On 28 May Leabeater sent Sharp another angry text message, following revelations in the press that morning, which linked the previous regime to tampering with memberships. Sharp’s board has embarked on a long-running probe into the previous administration, forwarding certain findings to the NSW Government.
In the AVO document, Sharp says he is planning to send a letter advising Leabeater of his suspension, and is concerned it will result in further threats and harassment.
If granted the order would prevent Leabeater from contacting Sharp by any means, except via his own legal representative.
