Gina Edwards sues A Current Affair over Oscar the Cavoodle story
A Sydney barrister is suing A Current Affair over their coverage of a dispute about an Instagram famous cavoodle.
Police & Courts
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A multi-year stoush over an Insta-famous cavoodle named Oscar has escalated to the Federal Court with a prominent barrister suing A Current Affair, claiming they set out to “humiliate and harass her” over the dog dispute.
Nine network’s cameras were rolling at a Kirribilli dog park when barrister Gina Edwards pursued her former friend, Mark Gillespie, who had grabbed Oscar in mid-2021.
Mr Gillespie, a cruise ship director, was described by Nine as Oscar’s registered owner and Ms Edwards as the designer dog’s former sitter.
Oscar’s rise to online fame came when Ms Edwards and her husband, dog sitting the cavoodle, began posting his images on Instagram in late 2019.
Nine reported it landed Oscar endorsements and even roles in Opera House productions.
In 2020 Ms Edwards launched court action hoping to win full custody of Oscar.
“He’s my property,” Mr Gillespie called out in the May 24 A Current Affair broadcast.
“You cannot take him,” Ms Edwards replied.
ACA journalist Steve Marshall and his camera crew captured the entire confrontation, interviewing Mr Gillespie who accused Ms Edwards of exploiting the “perfect Instagram model”.
Mr Marshall explains the custody battle for Oscar had long been before the courts and then the police arrive at nightfall to sort out the dispute.
The program ends with Mr Gillespie explaining he allowed Ms Edwards take Oscar while he fought for the cavoodle in the courts.
The second broadcast and article followed on June 1, 2021, titled “New twist in cavoodle custody battle”, the court document state.
The second story said Ms Edwards and her husband had hit Mr Gillespie with an AVO but then failed to turn up at court.
“Mark’s not surprised, he said it’s a pattern of behaviour he’s seen from Gina over the last 18 months involving delay tactics,” Mr Marshall said in the broadcast.
ACA then sought Ms Edwards out at her Sydney law office and home.
The case next made headlines in August 2020 when a NSW District Court judge ruled it needed the Supreme Court to handle the matter because the warring parties both agreed Oscar was worth more than $20,000.
“The parties’ legal representatives tell me that Oscar, the Cavoodle dog which is the subject of this litigation, is a social media celebrity, with more than 10,000 followers on Instagram,” the judge said.
“It may seem a very minor matter for the Supreme Court to be troubled by a dispute about a dog, even a celebrity dog with its own Instagram account, but there would appear to be no alternative to transfer.”
A NSW Supreme Court order, made in November 2021 and referenced in the court documents, declared that Ms Edwards and her husband were the owners of Oscar.
The case is now back before the courts with Ms Edwards, last week, filing defamation proceedings against ACA, Nine and Mr Marshall over the first segment, and a follow-up story aired the following month, in the Federal Court last week.
She enlisted the same defamation legal team that represented politicians Christian Porter and Andrew Laming — lawyer Rebekah Giles and silk Sue Chrysanthou SC — whose own cavoodles regularly appear on her webcam when she dials into trials.
Their court documents say Ms Edwards is a barrister with “substantial reputation in Australia and overseas” because of her work as an Assistant State Attorney for Miami-Dade County in Florida, the NSW Crown Prosecutors’ Office and the Obama election campaigns of 2008 and 2012.
The first broadcast and article, Ms Edwards claims, was defamatory because it falsely implied she was “a thief who stole Oscar the cavoodle” who “delayed a court case” and exploited the dog for her own financial benefit.
Ms Edwards claims, in the court documents, that Mr Marshall “ambushed” her with a camera crew and then lied saying it was “a coincidence” that the cameras were present when Mr Gillespie grabbed Oscar.
The documents allege Mr Marshall subjected Ms Edwards to “offensive ridicule”, Nine made misleading edits to the footage and they set out to damage her professional reputation.
“Marshall’s attendance, with a Channel 9 camera crew, at Edwards’ chambers on Phillip Street and her home in North Sydney, which was plainly intended to humiliate and harass her,” the documents claim.
Ms Edwards claims the second round of coverage defamed her by falsely implying she used “delay tactics to prolong her unlawful possession of Oscar”.
The articles and broadcasts were promoted with social media posts that attracted hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of shares, comments and reactions, the documents state.
Ms Edwards’ lawyers say a concerns notice, sent to Nine in November 2021, received no response.
Ms Edwards, in her Federal Court case, is seeking damages and aggravated damages and the removal of the articles and broadcasts from the internet.
Nine declined to comment on the case.
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