Stokes: ‘Disgusting’ claims led to Seven legal action against Harrison

Seven West Media boss Kerry Stokes has explained his decision to take legal action against a former executive assistant.

Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes.

The billionaire philanthropist and Seven West Media boss, Kerry Stokes, has explained his decision to take legal action against one of the company’s former executive assistants, Amber Harrison, saying she made “wildly false and disgusting allegations in the press” against some of Seven’s biggest stars.

Ms Harrison, 40, had an affair with Seven’s married CEO, Tim Worner, that ended in 2014.

Last December, she emailed a series of allegations about other Seven staff — including some of the network’s big names — to dozens of Australian journalists.

Some of those allegations, all of which were vehemently denied by those who were named, made their way on to the internet. Seven responded by seeking a gag order, to prevent Ms Harrison from speaking to journalists, or on social media.

“We only took action to protect innocent people and the company from her baseless accusations, as exposed by two judgments in the NSW Supreme Court,” Mr Stokes said.

“This has been a very difficult situation for the company, which features women in 50 per cent of our senior executive positions and is regarded as one of the top employers in Australia.”

Mr Stokes was also keen to scrape back some of the $427,000 he says Seven has paid to Harrison over the years, during negotiations aimed at bringing her employment at Seven to an end, while securing confidential documents.

“This has always been about trying to get confidential information back to the company, which has so far paid her more than $420,000, on top of the $200,000 she misappropriated from us on the credit card,” Mr Stokes said.

The case, which ended with a judgment in Seven’s favour by Justice John Sacker on Monday, has altered the way personal relationships are judged and managed in the workplace.