Channel 7 has threatened more legal action against the former mistress of boss, Tim Worner

CHANNEL Seven has threatened fresh legal action against the former mistress of chief executive Tim Worner.

CHANNEL 7 has threatened to launch contempt of court action over two tweets posted this week by the former mistress of the network’s embattled boss, Tim Worner.

Lawyers acting for Seven sent the warning in a letter to Amber Harrison yesterday, accusing her of “a blatant breach of the orders made against you by Justice Sackar on 17 July 2017.”

The tweets at issue were posted on October 6 and earlier this week, on September 28, as the Don Burke bullying and sexual harassment scandal erupted, sending shockwaves across the TV industry and its audience.

A tweet from Amber Harrison with which Seven has taken issue. Picture: Twitter

In the letter from Johson Winter & Slattery Lawyers, Ms Harrison was reminded she had “consented” to be “permanently restrained from:

a) either directly or indirectly, giving any interviews to any medium or media, or from making, authorising or procuring any public statement, publication, off the record comment, background information, publications, press releases, press conferences, or from participating in social media about the Company, any of the Beneficiaries or any of the other Group Members, the Termination, the Employment, the Relationship, the Expenses, or the First Deed;

Another tweet that is the subject of Seven’s latest threat against Amber Harrison. Picture: Twitter

b) whether by herself, or otherwise, making any statement or otherwise about the Termination, the Relationship, the First Deed, the Expenses, the Company, any of the Beneficiaries or any of the other Group Members;

c) making any adverse statement about, publicly disparaging or otherwise bringing into disrepute the Company, any of the Beneficiaries or any of the other Group Members;

Ms Harrison says she has been bankrupted by Seven. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

d) whether directly or indirectly causing, permitting, soliciting, inducing or encouraging any other person to make any adverse statement, whether publicly or otherwise, or publicly disparage or otherwise bring into disrepute the Company, any of the Beneficiaries or any of the Group Members: and

e) disclosing, copying or reproducing any Confidential Information, including without limitation the Deloitte Report.”

It continued: “as we have repeatedly informed you, our clients consider these ongoing breaches amount to you acting in contempt of the Orders made against you, particularly in the face of repeated written warnings as to the nature of your conduct.”

“In addition, your tweet regarding Matthew Newton is false and misleading.”

Ms Harrison has been given until 6pm today to remove the tweets from her Twitter account.

It concluded: “if you fail to do so, our clients reserve their rights to commence contempt proceedings against you without further notice.”

In response to the legal threat, Ms Harrison told NewsCorp: “Channel Seven are kidding themselves if they think a court order is going to suppress the truth and protect corporate cover ups past, current or future in the present climate. It doesn’t work. It is a failed tactic. I will continue to speak out and I’m not removing tweets.”

The prolonged and ugly legal war between Seven and the woman who had an 18-month sexual relationship with Mr Worner has effectively bankrupted the former executive assistant, who went public with salacious details of their affair in December last year.

In his July judgment, Justice Sackar ordered Ms Harrison to pay Seven’s costs on an indemnity basis, which is higher than the costs typically awarded in legal disputes and would cover its entire bill, likely to be in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“These proceedings have, from the outset, been engulfed in a vitriolic atmosphere,” Justice Sackar said.

“The allegations from both sides, whether entirely true or not, have often been personal, scandalous, and sadly ripe for media and public consumption.”

Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner (l), with chairman of the Seven Network Kerry Stokes. Picture: John Feder.

In a statement she posted on Twitter after that judgment, Ms Harrison took aim at “brutal corporate bullying and lawfare” and said Seven knew the order “would bankrupt me”.

She left Seven in late 2014, after signing two deeds which provided for a series of payments totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars to be made to her on the basis she did not speak about the company or the relationship.

Seven took her to court in February seeking a gag order holding her to those agreements, after she set up a Twitter account to air her grievances.

Despite the court victory, the reputational fallout for Seven continues to divide public opinion, with many seeing their relentless pursuit of and determination to silence Ms Harrison, now an unemployed foster mother, as corporate bullying.

Reaction is being sought from Channel 7.