Unwanted kiss ‘offended’ ABC’s Leigh Sales during black-tie dinner
ABC presenter Leigh Sales says she was left “offended and angered” after receiving an unwanted kiss on the lips from a man while hosting a black-tie Sydney charity dinner.
Confidential
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ABC presenter Leigh Sales has received an unwanted kiss on the lips from a man while hosting a black-tie Sydney charity dinner.
Ms Sales was introduced to the attendees on Saturday night at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel by a director of the multiple sclerosis charity the Trish Foundation - retired businessman Phil Newman - who offered a cheek kiss and then suddenly turned and kissed her on the lips.
Ms Sales said she was “offended and angered” by the incident and had “strong words” to Mr Newman, but had accepted his apology.
“Given how many people witnessed the incident, I feel it would be gutless not to stand up and say that kind of behaviour is intolerable and the time for women being subject to it or having to tolerate it is long gone,” she told The Guardian Australia.
“I was offended and angered by the incident on Saturday night. I had strong words to the man involved, he apologised and I accepted that apology. That should be the end of it as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
Mr Newman told the same publication his actions were an attempt at light humour but he had demonstrated poor judgment.
The incident comes five weeks after a man hurled a tub of yoghurt at Sales at the Disrupted Festival of Ideas, which was held at the State Library of Western Australia, at the end of July.
The yoghurt splashed Sales’s legs, the stage and the curtains behind her. She stepped to the side and was briefly speechless.
A 49-year-old man was charged with common assault, with a police charge sheet revealing that the man was “upset and disagreed with the views being presented”.