Grant Hackett plane scandal: Passenger accuses swimmer of groping his chest
LATEST: The victim of Grant Hackett’s alleged mid-flight meltdown won’t press charges after winning a personal apology, but feels emotionally and physically scarred by the star swimmer’s “sexual attack”.
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LATEST: The victim of Grant Hackett’s alleged mid-flight meltdown won’t press charges after winning a personal apology from the star swimmer, but still feels emotionally and physically scarred by the swimmer’s “sexual attack”.
Hackett personally spoke to the victim of the alleged sexual assault this afternoon.
And the man will not press charges after Hackett spoke to him to “unreservedly apologise”.
“We have spoken to him and it has been resolved,” the man’s partner told the Herald Sun.
They requested the troubled swimmer to make a public and private apology and donate some money to a charity of their choice.
The target of Hackett’s attentions says he’s still recovering from the incident.
“I can still feel his hands groping. I still feel violated,” the man who wished to remain anonymous told the Herald Sun today.
“My nipple still hurts, my chest still hurts.”
The Sydney based executive said he now had a fear of flying and had broken down in tears several times since the incident.
“I feel very uncomfortable flying now. I just feel very on edge at the moment.”
He said he was saddened to hear Collingwood CEO Gary Pert’s version of events which hosed down Hackett’s alleged assault.
Pert who was also on the Virgin flight had a very different version of events. He said he was sitting next to Hackett during the incident that led to the swimmer being questioned by police, saying the so-called assault had been “completely blown out of proportion.
“I knew there would be backlash. But I want to make this crystal clear, this was a completely unprovoked attack,” the alleged victim said.
This afternoon footage of the swim star being taken from a plane was released.
The footage, shot by another passenger and aired by Seven News, is said to show Hackett being supported by Collingwood CEO Gary Pert.
Hackett’s ‘unreserved apology’ over actions
This afternoon Hackett released a statement saying he realised it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten himself into strife.
“I seriously and genuinely regret my poor behaviour.
“I have stuffed up more than once and am working on these issues.
“It is embarrassing to hear and read the consequences of my actions. I apologise unreservedly to the gentleman on the flight. I am trying to make direct contact with him personally.
“I know I have to front the media and discuss my actions in a more appropriate and accountable way. I just have to be as frank and open as I need to be. I apologise for any inconvenience.”
The statement released just before 4pm this afternoon, came after Hackett faced a wave of criticism and public scrutiny over his behaviour on the flight.
Huegill: ‘Not all athletes are a bumbling mess’
Earlier, Hackett’s ex-teammate Geoff Huegill retracted a statement supporting Hackett’s position as a mentor to young athletes.
Huegill says he was shocked to hear of Hackett’s latest stumble and would have to retract the statement he wrote last week, saying why he didn’t think Hackett should retire and should remain a mentor.
He also suggested Hackett may need another stay in rehab.
“The only words of advice I can pass onto Grant is to take time out again and if it means you need to head away and revisit some of the facilities of the past, then don’t be afraid to put your hand up and say you need help,” Huegill wrote on Facebook.
Huegill also says all sportspeople shouldn’t be painted in the same light as Hackett.
“Not all athletes are a bumbling mess once they leave sport, just the same as not all Muslims want to join ISIS,” Huegill wrote.
“To all of the people that are ready to crucify the rest of the Olympians and athletes that have either stumbled in the past, grow up, build a bridge and get over your issues of the past.”
Huegill’s comments come despite the fact he and his wife were famously spotted entering a disabled toilet cubicle at Randwick Racecourse in April 2014, each with small bags of cocaine.
They pleaded guilty to drug possession and were given six-month good behaviour bonds.
It's time to eat humble pie.
— Geoff Huegill (@geoffhuegill) April 18, 2016
Now before you all get your pitchforks out and start tarring every swimmer and... https://t.co/ZIbHmQEvwl
Fev on Hackett: I know how he feels
And, former AFL star Brendan Fevola who has found himself in similar strife in the past gave an insight into Hackett’s likely feelings.
He revealed Hackett shouldn’t have been on the flight from Adelaide in the first place.
“About a month ago they asked me to do it and I declined because I was playing footy,” Fevola said on Fox FM.
He expected that Hackett would be in hiding in response to the backlash.
“He would be pretty depressed at the moment, when I’ve been in trouble before and it all comes out in the paper, you just lock yourself in the house.
“You do think, ‘what have I done?’At the end of the day at all comes down to drinking, the alcohol.
“I do feel a bit sorry for Grant.”
Claims rock Hackett
The apology comes after a Virgin Australia business-class passenger accused the swimmer of groping his chest.
“There was no altercation — I was sexually assaulted by that man,” said the tearful frequent flyer, who did not want to be named, on Sunday night.
The passenger said yesterday he and his partner had been sitting in the first two seats in business class when Hackett boarded and sat immediately behind them, in the second row.
“As I reclined my chair, he grabbed it and yanked it back,’’ the distressed passenger said.
“Then he put his hand through and groped my chest and tweaked my nipple quite forcefully.
“I was shocked, and my partner turned round and he asked him what the hell he thought he was doing.
“Mr Hackett then stroked my arm and said; ‘It’s OK, it’s all right.”
But it wasn’t.
“I felt unsafe and violated,” said the young executive, who had been to Adelaide for a reunion with his partner’s family.
“Then when we began the descent he tried to do it again, but I would not release the buttons, so he could not yank the chair back.”
The man, who lives in Sydney, complained to the crew and pilot. Once the plane landed at Melbourne airport, he spent several hours with the Australian Federal Police.
The chance of a deal to work with Channel 7 at the Rio Olympics, after his failed bid to win swimming selection and revive his reputation following a series of scandals, is in doubt after Hackett was taken from the plane to a police van in a wheelchair.
On Sunday night, the man and his partner vowed to pursue charges. It is understood they provided the AFP with full statements; a third person is also understood to have given a statement.
“I feel unsafe now getting on a flight, because I don’t know if someone is going to come from behind and grope me again,” the man said.
The man spoke out publicly to scotch reports of a nasty altercation aboard the plane.
The man said the incident occurred while he and his partner had been quietly watching a movie on his laptop.
His partner had earlier noticed Hackett in the departure lounge and had commented that he appeared to be under the influence of something, the man said.
FROM POSTER BOY EARNING MILLIONS TO DESTRUCTIVE MESS
— Robert Craddock
GRANT Hackett used to earn more than $2 million a year because he had a reputation as pristine as the water he used to swim in.
So bankable that banks actually made him a poster boy, landing major sponsorships today’s swimmers can only dream about.
The man with the toothpaste smile, pop singer wife and delivery so smooth he was hired as a TV broadcaster, Hackett’s image was whiter than a polar bear in a snowstorm. Then came the fall from which he has never recovered.
Hackett’s incident involving a passenger on a flight to Melbourne yesterday has destroyed all the goodwill he created in a stirring comeback to the pool at the national titles at age 35.
National coach Jacco Verhaeren had floated the idea of using Hackett as a team mentor at the Rio Olympics. That option is now untenable.
Swimming has done much to repair its tattered image after the London Olympics.
For image reasons alone, it cannot take the chance on a 35-year-old who cannot behave himself on a plane.
Sportsmen often lead controversial playing careers then melt into mellow, low-key retirements.
Hackett is rocking the trend.
Sunday’s incident continues a bewildering pattern of his post-swimming life where severe lapses of behaviour are followed by spirited recoveries ... then major stumbles.
For the first 30 years of his life, Hackett’s journey — at least from public view — seemed as smooth as the languid stroke that made him one of the greatest distance swimmers of all time with three Olympic gold medals (two individual and one relay).
Trouble started in October 2011, when he trashed his luxury penthouse apartment after returning from Derby Day celebrations at Flemington.
His then-wife, singer Candice Alley, phoned 000 and photographs later showed doors and walls punched, a grand piano up-ended and furniture smashed and broken.
News of those antics shocked the sporting world.
Some fans were instantly turned off him while to others, the words of his retired policeman father Nev — “he’s a dickhead but I still love him’’ – resonated in the hope that the tension may have been the result of a one-off domestic meltdown. But the dramas continued.
In February 2012, he lost his contract as a Westpac ambassador and three months later, he and wife Candice split.
A month later, he admitted to using the drug Stilnox but the volatile pattern of his life continued a few months later when he graduated with an MBA at Bond University.
Soon after, he went into rehab for Stilnox addiction.
Every step forward was followed by two staggering steps back. In an effort to rebuild his reputation, Hackett returned to competitive swimming at the national titles.
Television commentators referred to him as “Hackey’’ and coach Verhaeren even said: “We love the guy and love him on the team.”
There was love and hope in the air. But on Sunday there was only trouble in the air — and the goodwill he had worked so hard to conjure had vanished, perhaps for good.
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