Return to duty: Matt Doran back on Sunrise after going AWOL
Seven News problem child Matt Doran returns as Seven’s Weekend Sunrise presenter after going AWOL reporting on the Singleton bus crash.
NSW
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Matt Doran is expected back in the chair at Weekend Sunrise tomorrow.
The Weekend Sunrise presenter was absent from Seven’s weekend morning show last week after going AWOL the Tuesday prior while working in the field from the Hunter Valley bus tragedy. Seven later said Doran, who has a history of erratic behaviour, had taken personal leave and gone home to “(prioritise) his health”.
After police were called upon to help locate the reporter, who failed to front for his Sunrise slot, a Geotrack notification was issued and he was later found by a police officer “slumped in a corner” of a cafe in the Rutherford area. Newsman Michael Usher filled in for 40-year-old Doran last weekend.
Lizzie Buttrose’s son on second drug charge
Andrew Spira, the son of Sydney socialite Lizzie Buttrose, has been charged with a second count of possessing a trafficable quantity of drugs following an investigation by a joint organised crime task force.
The news of the joint task force investigation comes after 100 pills were allegedly found in a Hall Street post box in Bondi this month.
Spira, 24, was originally charged in May with fraud, firearm and gun offences after allegedly breaching bail conditions on an unrelated matter in Sydney two weeks earlier and flying to Darwin on a private jet on May 20 with a 22-year-old woman, Kayla-leigh Martin, who also faced charges.
Two days later police executed a search warrant of the Darwin Hilton hotel room the pair were staying in and allegedly seized an unlicensed firearm, a quantity of the steroids testosterone and nandrolone, and a quantity of electronic devices.
After being refused bail in Darwin Local Court on May 24, on June 8 Spira had an application to have his case dealt with under mental health provisions rejected.
The matter is set to return to court on July 8, although without Spira’s legal counsellor, Jon Tippett KC.
On Friday Tippett, who previously informed the court his client was a “genuinely sick person”, confirmed he was no longer representing Spira, who in May told the court his socialite mother was the first person to give him ice at age 14 and that he has been supporting his parents financially. “(I) want nothing to do with him,” Tippett said yesterday, adding, “I say (that) as a very seasoned criminal lawyer.”
Last week Det Acting Sr Sergeant Darren Burns said: “Detectives are currently analysing all of the seized electronic devices, which police believe will reveal significant fraud across multiple states and territories in Australia. Investigations remain ongoing and further charges are expected to be made.”
Same day, new appeal
Entertainment agent Titus Day fronted the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday in the hope of overturning his conviction for embezzling money from his former marquee client and friend, Guy Sebastian.
Seven months into his sentence, a lean and bespectacled Day made an appearance via video link from St Heliers Correctional Centre, a minimum security jail in Muswellbrook, before three presiding judges, Acting Justice Carolyn Simpson, Justice Hament Dhanji and Justice Judith Lonergan, who will determine if there may be sufficient grounds to acquit Day.
Day’s appeal is based on three grounds: that the legal definition of the term clerk or servant should not apply to Day as he had a contract with Sebastian’s management company Six Degrees, that a miscarriage of justice was occasioned from Crown prosecutor David Morters’ closing address after the Crown reversed the onus of proof, and thirdly, that the jury may have acted under pressure to reach a verdict to enable one juror to make an overseas flight scheduled the day after the verdict was reached.
Day, who has long maintained his innocence relating to the allegations, has retained top silk Bret Walker, juniored by Thomas Woods, for his appeal, having originally been represented by Dominic Toomey SC during the trial. Toomey was in court on Friday to observe proceedings.
The entertainment agent, whose other high profile client, singer Tina Arena, told the court Day had an “impeccable reputation of honesty (and) integrity”, was sentenced in November to four years’ jail with a minimum 2½ years after a jury found he had embezzled more than $620,000 from Sebastian.
Mr Walker also told the court the pop singer’s credibility would be questioned after he told the court during his evidence at trial that Day had written an email that was sent from Sebastian’s own email address. He told the court this was an issue of dishonesty in the trial that “invited the jury to infer Mr Day authored this email” knowing he was wrongly embezzling money.
The court case itself was mired in tragedy, illness and delays after the original trial judge, Peter Zahra, was taken ill on day two and failed to recover, dying three days later having suffered a stroke. The following week Sebastian informed the court he’d contracted Covid and would be unable to proceed for another seven days. The Crown prosecutor also contracted Covid, one juror went missing after their child was hospitalised and another was taken to hospital during a lunch break suffering from anaphylactic shock. It prompted substitute judge Timothy Gartelmann, who fielded concerns from numerous jurors about the predicted length of the trial, to comment that following overnight deliberation he would “make a decision about whether or not it is practical for individual jurors and indeed the trial itself to continue”.
Having started before 15 jurors on May 3, 2022, by its conclusion on June 30, 2022, Gartelmann’s jury was down to just 10, one of whom needed to catch a flight the following day.
Day’s arrest came after Sebastian’s best friend Tim Freeburn called a cricket mate who is also a cop, David Murphy who, the court heard, was “seduced” into arresting Day.
When confronted with bank records while giving evidence, Murphy later acknowledged while giving evidence, “seeing what I’ve seen now, I wouldn’t have charged him”.
The charges were laid after Sebastian and Day launched counter civil proceedings alleging each owed the other money. Sebastian has denied owing Day money. That civil case was subsequently put on ice after Murphy arrested Day.
The men had a bitter falling out in 2017 after a decade of friendship.
Shirvo is out of the blocks strongly
Television viewers took a keen interest in Matt Shirvington’s first week in the chair at Sunrise, with official TV ratings showing Seven extended its lead over Nine rival Today to a 66,000 viewer margin (all people five capital cities – 235,590 v 169,591) on Shirvington’s first day, June 12.
By the following Monday, June 19, the Sunrise audience had lifted, by 10,000 viewers to 245,192, although so too had Today, to 191,760.
That was Today’s second strongest Monday result in four weeks.
While there have plainly been plenty of curious eyes fixed on Shirvington’s first two weeks in the chair, Today last week recorded its strongest audience average for four weeks.
That isn’t good news for regular Today host Karl Stefanovic who has been partying with rich listers in Europe while Shirvington has been finding his feet.
In Stefanovic’s seat for the past two weeks have been Charles Croucher and James Bracey – Bracey enjoying Today’s best result on Wednesday ahead of State of Origin II when the gap between the two programs was just 5000 people.
TV sport host a new poppy
TV sports presenter Mark Beretta and his wife Rachel have become first-time grandparents. The couple’s eldest child, Ava, aged about 18, gave birth to her first child, a boy, three weeks ago.
The Sunrise sports presenter, who also has a teenage son, Daniel, said his family is thrilled. “Rach and I are delighted to be grandparents and feel hugely privileged to be able to enjoy so much hands-on time with our new grandson,” he said.
“Ava and her fiancé Sam are over the moon and adjusting well to their busy new life as parents.”.
The on-the-go TV personality, who is 57, has previously said his children are “like friends”.
Cancer that killed dad won’t get me: Miracle drug gives Ryan hope
Ryan Harding has no memories of his father but he has lived with the same rare disease that took his life. Now, thanks to a newly PBS-listed miracle drug, he finally has hope—for himself and his future children.
‘Profits before patients’: Hospital slammed for hiring out maternity ward
The controversial Northern Beaches Hospital is putting “profits before patients” by hiring out one of its two maternity wards to film and TV crews rather than accommodate birthing mothers, irate staff claim.