Karen Ristevski’s stepson sues Channel 9 over claims he demanded cash to tell his story
EXCLUSIVE: KAREN Ristevski’s stepson is suing Channel 9 after it broadcast claims he demanded $200,000 to tell his story.
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KAREN Ristevski’s stepson is suing Channel 9 after it broadcast claims he demanded $200,000 to tell his story.
Mrs Ristevski, 47, mysteriously disappeared in June last year and her badly decomposed body was found in a shallow grave at Mount Macedon in February.
In the weeks after her disappearance Anthony Rickard, 33, “came out” as her “ice-addicted stepson” and made a series of claims to police about the family. Now he is suing Channel 9 in the County Court over slurs he said were aired on Nine’s A Current Affair.
READ MORE: BORCE RISTEVSKI’S MISSING MINUTES
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO KAREN RISTEVSKI?
He claims the station approached him offering him money to appear on the show, but then broadcast allegations the next day that he was demanding money for his story.
His writ claims the station then defamed him on three separate occasions the following day, firstly in a promotion published to the show’s almost 1.4 million Facebook followers which said:
“The ugly grab for cash. How her stepson, Anthony Rickard, is now demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell Australia about his real relationship with the missing mum”.
The second and third alleged defamations were in the promoted report that aired on ACA that night and was then posted to the 9 Now website.
The ACA report said Rickard had approached the current affairs show the day before “wanting to sell his story” but all he ever wanted was money for drugs.
“She is the missing mum and he is trying to find a fortune”, the report said.
ACA labelled him “avaricious, which means greedy” saying he was a “mercenary” who wanted to “profit from his stepmother’s disappearance” and sell his story to “the highest bidder” and the amount he wanted “gets bigger by the day”.
The report goes on to claim ACA was “never going to pay him one cent” but “dangled a factitious $50,000 bait” but Rickard demanded four times that amount.
ACA also aired claims Rickard borrowed $2000 from a “close cousin” and did not pay it back; had asked his stepmother to pay for him to go in rehab just 10 days before she disappeared; and “was inquiring about guns” and “seems to have a fascination with guns and violence”.
Rickard claims Channel 9 had no lawful excuse to publish the claims, which have tarnished his public standing, and that it had not replied to requests for an apology.
In addition to damages and an apology Rickard wants the offending Facebook and 9 Now publications to be removed.
The father of two, who has spent time in jail for assault, has admitted he didn’t have an alibi for the day Ms Ristevski vanished but denied harming her when asked by police if he killed her.
He told police he believed Ms Ristevski chose to flee, possibly because of a phone conversation he’d had with her two weeks earlier had upset her marriage.
He later told reporters that his stepmother wanted to run away with him once her daughter Sarah turned 21, although there is no evidence she had any such plans.
Rickard also initially stated he did not believe his father was capable of murder.
Borce Ristevski, 54, told police his wife left their $1 million Avondale Heights home around mid-morning to clear her head after the pair had a minor argument about money and never returned.
Channel Nine said it could not comment as the matter was before the court.