Victorian Pipe Band governing body facing defamation lawsuit
Tensions are rising in the Victorian Pipe Band community as one of its most senior members launched defamation action against the board with explosive allegations about its conduct.
Police & Courts
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The Victorian Pipe Band community is in turmoil after one of its most senior members launched defamation action against the governing body.
Andrew Womersley, an esteemed drummer with 50 years’ experience including as musical director of Victoria Police, claims he has been humiliated and his name slandered following a series of letters published by the Victorian Highland Pipe Band Association.
Mr Womersley claimed the letters falsely implied he was being investigated for misconduct at the Youth Pipe Band summer camp in 2019.
Mr Womersley, a senior tutor and manager of the youth group, has claimed in court documents the actual target of the criminal probe was another senior figure in Pipe Bands Australia.
A Victoria Police spokesman said a report was made to police regarding an alleged incident in Maryborough in January 2019.
Investigators spoke to the complainant, who made a statement requesting no further police action, the spokesman confirmed.
In court documents lodged with the County Court, Mr Womersley said the decision by VHPBA to publish the letters to members of the community was politically motivated, as the senior figure was an “ally” of the association.
Mr Womersley claims the association — the oldest of its kind in the world — muddied his name as retribution for criticising their handling of the investigation.
The letters, dated April 24, 26 and May 3 2019, said after learning of complaints stemming from the band camp, the VHPBA had been “impeded in all aspects to undertake a timely and important investigation” by Youth Pipe Band management.
The letters further outlined that two senior tutors from the Youth Pipe Band had been suspended pending investigation.
Mr Womersley claimed members of the Pipe Band community reading the letters knew that he was a senior tutor and manager of the Youth Band and were defamatory in that they were “understood to mean (Womersley) had engaged in very serious misconduct”.
“As a result of the publication … (he) has been seriously injured in his credit and reputation, has been humiliated and embarrassed,” court documents state.
Mr Womersley is seeking aggravated damages, claiming prior to the publication of the letters he had complained to the VHPBA about their handling of the complaint about the man’s conduct at the camp.
“The defendants also published the imputations … to protect (the man) from being identified as the subject of the complaint,” Mr Womersley’s statement of claim read.
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