Peter V’landys: Racing NSW CEO sues ABC 7.30 for defamation

Racing boss Peter V’landys is suing the ABC over a segment aired on 7:30 last year that saw the chief executive and his children subjected to a “firestorm” of online abuse.

• Private school calls in crisis team over muck-up prank
• Dramatic new vision for Sydney’s ‘Silicon Valley’

Racing supremo Peter V’landys and his children were subjected to a “firestorm” of torrid online abuse after the ABC allegedly set about to “destroy his reputation” with an agenda to make his industry look bad, a court was told yesterday.

The chief executive of Racing NSW is suing the public broadcaster for defamation over a television story aired on 7.30 last year, which alleged former racehorses were being carted off to slaughterhouses in NSW and Queensland.

Barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, told the Federal Court yesterday the ABC made a decision not to show Mr V’landys undercover videos of the ­facilities before his sit-down interview — in which he said he had no knowledge of the practice in NSW — was intercut with the graphic footage.

Peter V’landys (left) outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“The ABC program … did its very best … to strike Mr V’landys right at the very heart of those things he cared passionately about and tried very hard to trash and destroy his reputation,” he said.

“They succeeded to a very large extent, the damage to his reputation was immense and continues to this day.”

Only hours after the program aired in October 2019, just before Mr V’landys was due to take the reins of the Australian Rugby League Commission and in the lead up to The Everest race, a “firestorm” of online abuse began to pour into Racing NSW’s general email account directed at him and even his children, the court heard.

“I hope your kids get cancer and die slowly you filthy low life c…s,” Mr McClintock said one of the emails read while another stated Mr V’landys was a “spineless lair” and a “f…ing creep”.

Lawyers for Mr V’landys argue the ABC deliberately kept him in the dark before airing a segment on 730. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Mr McClintock said the abuse ­directed at his children had hurt Mr V’landys in particular.

Mr V’landys watched the program in its entirety for the first time in court yesterday and said he was “appalled” by the vision of a Queensland facility but said he had been under the ­impression the interview would be an opportunity to promote NSW’s “brilliant system” in rehoming racehorses.

“I feel deceived, I feel angry — there’s a multitude of emotions,” he said in the witness box.