Supreme court jury finds the cricketer did not expose himself to a masseuse, nor did he indecently proposition her

The cricketer Chris Gayle has won his defamation case against Fairfax Media after a jury found a series of articles published in 2016 which alleged he exposed his penis to a masseuse were untrue.

The jury at the supreme court in Sydney took less than two hours to answer no to all three questions it was asked to consider, including whether he had exposed himself and indecently propositioned her.

The masseuse, Leanne Russell, gave evidence last week that it was “horrific” and she cried uncontrollably in 2015 after the West Indies cricketer pulled his towel down to expose his penis and asked her, “Is this what you’re looking for?” when she walked into the change room at the Drummoyne Oval in Sydney.

Gayle, who captained the West Indies Test team between 2007 and 2010 and is known for his big-hitting and aggressive style of batting, sued Fairfax for the articles which he said were untrue and had damaged his reputation.

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On Monday Gayle embraced his barrister, Bruce McClintock, as they left the court. “I’m a good man. I’m not guilty,” Gayle told reporters outside court.

Gayle said he was “very happy” and thanked his legal team who he said had done a great job. He said it was never about the money and if Fairfax appealed he would fight it again. He wanted to put the “emotional” case behind him and get on with his life.

Fairfax said it believes the jury was misled and it did not get a fair trial.

“Fairfax Media is concerned with the conduct of the trial to the extent that, on Friday, it sought an order that the jury be discharged and a new trial ordered,” a spokesman said. “The judge accepted that the jury had been misled in a way that prejudiced Fairfax but declined to discharge the jury. Fairfax believes that it did not get a fair trial. It is seriously considering its appeal rights.”

On Monday morning Justice Lucy McCallum excused the jury while she deliberated over certain statements that were made to the jury about the evidence in the summing up. She decided to proceed rather than dismiss the jury.

During the six-day defamation trial in the supreme court Fairfax admitted the articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Canberra Times and the Age were defamatory but put forward the defences of truth and qualified privilege.

The four-person jury made up of one man and three women retired before lunch on Monday to consider their verdict after McCallum explained their task was to consider the evidence at hand and nothing else.

The jury had to consider three questions. The first was whether Gayle “intentionally exposed” his genitals to Russell in the West Indies team dressing room during a training session for the 2015 World Cup.

The second was whether Gayle indecently propositioned Russell that day, and the third was whether Gayle “exposed himself” to Russell, who was the team masseuse at the time.

The jury also found that Fairfax was motivated by malice in publishing the articles. The court will convene on Tuesday to consider damages.

Russell, who now works as a sports administrator in Melbourne, was not in court on Monday but Gayle sat quietly through every day of evidence, flanked by his legal team.

The trial had to be moved to the King Street court complex on Monday after the supreme court building was flooded by an errant sprinkler. McCallum and the legal fraternity appeared without their wigs and robes because they were locked in the judge’s chambers.

On Friday McClintock described Russell as “plainly neurotic” in a reference to her self-described anorexia and as “bitter” and “vengeful”.

Russell said she had been distressed because she felt the team didn’t respect her. “I was sick of being treated that way,” she said last week. “I was someone who had forged my career in sport. I would never be as successful as I would be if I was a man.”

Russell said she had been motivated to tell the Age journalist Chloe Saltau her story last year after she saw the Mel McLaughlin interview with Gayle because of the way women were treated in sport.

“I saw the top half of his penis, I apologise,” Russell told the Sydney court. “Thereafter I shielded my eyes.”

Russell said she had run up to the Drummoyne Oval stand where she sat for two and a half hours and cried because the day before another player, Dwayne Smith, had sent her a text saying “sexy”.

“I was very upset that a team that I had known for so long would treat me that way.”

Gayle was in the witness box on day one before his team mate Smith, who was also in the change room and who backed up his version of events. But Smith was accused of lying by the Fairfax silk, Dr Matthew Collins.

Russell gave her emotional testimony before a packed court of media and onlookers and, after a long cross-examination quietly sobbed in the witness box.

“Chris asked me what I was looking for,” she said of the moment she walked into the change room. “I said, ‘A towel.’ And he said, ‘Are you looking for this?’ I saw the top half of Chris’s penis and I shielded my eyes and left the room. I said ‘no’ and I walked out.”

Russell indicated to the jury that she lifted her hand up to shield her eyes. “I hadn’t eaten that day and the catering was in the change room,” she said.

Russell explained that she had told Gayle she was looking for a towel and not food because she did not want to discuss food. “I have a history of eating disorders,” she said. “I rarely discuss food … I suffered with anorexia.”

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Gayle holds a number of records across all forms of the game, including being the only player in the world to have scored a triple hundred in Test cricket, a double hundred in an ODI and a century in a T20 international.

He has scored 15 Test centuries and is one of just four players to have hit two triple centuries at that level, but it is in limited overs cricket where he has forged a reputation as one of the best to have played the game.

He was the first player to reach 200 in a World Cup game and became the first player to score a T20 World Cup century. He also shares the record for the fastest half century in T20 cricket – achieved in just 12 balls.

In total he has hit 18 T20 centuries, marking him out as one of the most destructive batsman in the business and making him one of the most sought-after players on the nomadic T20 circuit.

Gayle has plied his trade in a number of T20 competitions, including Australia’s Big Bash League, the T20 Blast in England and the Indian Premier League.

