Celebrity cavoodle case ends with $150,000 payout

If every dog has its day, Friday was Oscar the cavoodle’s. His barrister owner has been awarded $150,000 in damages after she won her defamation case against television program A Current Affair over broadcasts a judge found depicted her as a dog thief.

Gina Edwards sued the Nine Network and one of its journalists in the Federal Court over stories aired in May and June 2021, and the accompanying online articles, regarding the ownership of Oscar.

Gina Edwards and Oscar the cavoodle outside court before the judgment.Credit: Janie Barrett

The dog sat outside the courtroom on level 19 on Friday wearing black barristerial robes and a white jabot, later replaced with a red bandana around his neck reading “Justice”.

Edwards argued Nine defamed her by making numerous incorrect claims, including that she was “a thief who stole Oscar the cavoodle”, exploited the dog for her own financial benefit, and deliberately delayed court proceedings.

In a judgment delivered on Friday afternoon, Justice Michael Wigney ruled in Edwards’ favour and awarded $150,000 in damages including aggravated damages.

He rejected Nine’s defences of truth and contextual truth.

Wigney said the broadcasts regarding the dispute over the “supposedly famous cavoodle” were “sensationalist, if not hyperbolic”, and “portrayed Ms Edwards in a most unfavourable light”.

Gina Edwards and Oscar the cavoodle after she won her defamation case against Nine.Credit: Janie Barrett

The judge found all but one of the defamatory meanings was conveyed, including “most significantly” that the show had implied Edwards was a “thief who stole Oscar the cavoodle”.

The broadcasts depicted Edwards’ former friend Mark Gillespie, who claimed he owned Oscar, grabbing the dog from a Kirribilli park and saying “I’m just collecting my property, thank you” before moving away as Edwards ran after him. In the footage, Oscar was wearing a white polo shirt.

Edwards told Gillespie “you cannot take him”, and, “Mark, you are going to be arrested, stop it.”

The court previously heard that police were called and Gillespie handed Oscar to Edwards.

The judge said A Current Affair journalist Steve Marshall had made “sarcastic” and “pun-laden” commentary throughout the broadcasts, which “mostly sided with Mr Gillespie’s version of events and disparaged and demeaned Ms Edwards”.

During the 2022 trial, Gillespie told the court he bought Oscar in 2016 and introduced the cavoodle to Edwards and her husband Kenneth Flavell, who he claimed “monetised” the dog by establishing an Instagram account for the pet while he was overseas.

The pooch gained thousands of followers and was photographed in a tuxedo for his appearance in Opera Australia’s La Boheme.

Oscar the cavoodle pictured at an event for opera production La Boheme in 2018.Credit: James Alcock

In one of the stories, it was claimed that Edwards was dog-sitting Oscar while Gillespie was on a cruise ship, and “torpedoed his world” by saying she would not be giving the dog back.

Wigney said Edwards obtained possession of Oscar in 2019 “by deception” by falsely claiming he was going to be on Channel Seven’s show, Pooch Perfect, and having him picked up from Gillespie’s relatives in the NSW Southern Highlands.

“While Ms Edwards employed deceptive means to obtain possession of Oscar from those who were entrusted by Oscar’s rightful owner, Mr Gillespie, to look after Oscar while he was overseas, she did so in circumstances where she believed that she was a co-owner and had a right to retain possession of Oscar,” the judge said.

“That belief was based on legal advice she had received, albeit in an informal setting, from a barrister. While in my view that advice was wrong, it was nevertheless reasonable for Ms Edwards to accept it, and her belief based on it was honestly and genuinely held.”

Edwards, in her evidence, said the “trashy television program” had made her look like a “crazy person”, and was “vigilante justice madness” in the middle of a court case.

Civil proceedings regarding the ownership of Oscar were resolved in the NSW Supreme Court in November 2021, after the broadcasts, when consent orders were made declaring Edwards to be Oscar’s owner.

Outside court on Friday, Edwards said she was “very, very happy with the outcome”.

“Now we can get back to enjoying the parks and our lives,” she said.

Edwards said it was “never about the money”, and they had tried to settle for $40,000 before trial.

“It destroyed my entire life for the monetisation of some pretty atrocious lies about me,” she said.

“It’s over now, and we won. Justice has been done.”

Edwards said she would be filing a complaint with Nine’s board of directors and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

The commercial litigation barrister has worked as an assistant state attorney in the United States and on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Joe Biden in 2020.

Nine, also the publisher of this masthead, declined to comment.

The case returns to court in May for final orders.