60 Minutes: Sacked producer Stephen Rice hires top lawyer ahead of legal battle

FORMER 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice, picutred yesterday, is prepared to go to court over his axeing after the Beirut kidnapping blunder.

• SENIOR PRODUCER RICE DEPARTS CHANNEL 9
• BOSS SAYS NINE WILL KEEP WRITING CHEQUES
• WHAT WENT WRONG IN BOTCHED KIDNAP ATTEMPT

FORMER 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice is fighting his sacking by the Nine Entertainment Co, hiring high-profile workplace lawyer John Laxon — who represented ex-Nine news boss Mark Llewellyn in his famous case against the network — ahead of a potential blockbuster legal battle.

News of the likely legal stoush has come as Rice’s on-the-ground partner in the Beirut story, Tara Brown, returned to work at Nine’s Willoughby HQ yesterday.

Rice was terminated by the company on Friday and publicly named as the main person responsible for 60 Minutes’ disastrous Beirut child kidnapping story involving Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner.

Stephen Rice outside his Birchgrove home last week. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Stephen Rice, right, and journalist Tara Brown, middle arrive back in Australia after being released from prison in Beruit / AFP

A close friend of Rice told The Daily Telegraph last night his decision to hire a lawyer had come because he was angry at being sacked despite the fact an internal review recommended no staff member “be singled out for dismissal”.

“They said right from the ­beginning no one was going to get the sack,” the friend said.

“Because of this he wasn’t legally represented at the review and hadn’t sought any legal advice.”

The friend said Rice had spent “the last four weeks or so since coming out of prison believing he was safe in his job”.

“Whatever his mistakes were, he was there with Nine’s full knowledge and blessing,” he said.

It is understood Rice was told on Friday he was being terminated and had been made a ­settlement offer, which he has not yet signed off on.

The friend said Mr Laxon would head negotiations with Nine over Rice’s termination.

“Steve has realised that he needs representation,” the friend said.

“Having the network name him (as the main person responsible for Beirut) has damaged his career, his reputation and his prospects of earning income.”

Mr Laxon ­famously drew up the explosive affidavit of Llewellyn, which dominated headlines around the country for alleging that former Nine CEO Eddie McGuire had said he wanted to “bone” (sack) former Today show host Jessica Rowe. He also represented former Nine employee, ex-reporter Christine Spiteri, in another high-profile workplace case.

There was speculation in Nine circles about the role of Nine chairman Peter Costello and the company’s board in influencing Mr Marks in his decision to sack Rice. But a Nine insider claimed that, while Mr Marks had consulted Nine directors, the final decision was the CEO’s alone.

60 Minutes report fallout.

Meanwhile, as Tara Brown returned to work yesterday, her former boss, long-time Nine news and current affairs chief Peter Meakin, said she would be hurting from Rice’s sacking: “She’s a very professional person. She’ll be deeply wounded by his departure. She’s very loyal.”

Of Rice he said: “It is impossible to overstate how good he is. He’s a ­brilliant journalist, and I feel very sorry for him.”

On the ratings front, 60 Minutes had a small ratings win this week, with 778,000 viewers in the five capital ­cities tuning in for its mea culpa to viewers, compared with 615,000 for Sunday Night.

CCTV footage captured the moment contractors hired by Sally Faulkner allegedly abducting her children from their Lebanese grandmother.