ABC lawyers accuse Peter V’landys’ representatives of turning ‘defamation trial to Gogglebox’

Lawyers for Peter V’landys are being accused by the ABC of trying to twist a defamation trial into an episode of the popular reality TV show.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys. Picture: Toby Zerna

Lawyers for NSW racing boss Peter V’landys are being accused by the ABC of trying to twist a high-stakes defamation trial into an episode of popular reality TV show Gogglebox.

Mr V’landys, the chief executive of Racing NSW and Australian Rugby League Commission chairman, is suing the ABC and journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna for defamation in the Federal Court over an exposé aired on 7.30 last year.

Barrister Sandy Dawson SC, appearing for the ABC, questioned how Mr V’landys could claim damages for “hurt feelings” over a program he is yet to watch.

“He’ll walk into your honour’s courtroom in September, sit down and watch the program for the first time ever in what could only be described as Gogglebox: courtroom edition,” he said.

Mr Dawson said the fact Mr V’landys had not watched the episode of 7.30 he is suing over meant the racing chief’s evidence would carry a “fundamental problem”.

“This application in fact is doing violence to how your honour could possibly discern what’s real and what’s not and what’s manufactured,” he said.

Mr V’landys is seeking aggravated damages over the segment ‘The Final Race’, which exposed disturbing details of thoroughbred racehorses being violently killed in knackeries in NSW and Queensland.

The segment aired on October 17 last year, just two days before The Everest at Randwick, the highlight of Sydney’s spring racing carnival.

The vision, obtained during a two-year investigation, showed graphic footage of horses being kicked, dragged, shocked, bolted through the head and inhumanely slaughtered at an abattoir in Caboolture, north of Brisbane.

Barrister Bruce McClintock SC, appearing for Mr V’landys, said the program amounted to a “set up” that was designed to portray Mr V’landys as a person who “callously permitted the wholesale slaughter” of horses.

He said the ABC acted with “malice” when it spliced an interview he had done in good faith with graphic footage of horses being slaughtered that he had not seen or been told about.

“The program is basically a set up designed to get Mr V’landys on, under false pretences, and then make him look appalling by showing around the interview with him, this horrifying footage of horses being appallingly, badly treated,” he said.

He argued that Mr V’landys was never given a chance to explain that he had “no responsibility” for the slaughter of racehorses at Queensland’s Meramist Abattoir.

Mr McClintock said one of the racing chief’s confidantes, who had viewed the program, later told him it was a “10/10 stitch up”.

V’landys appeared on the ABC’s 7.30 program.

He said the purpose of the interview was to elicit outrage among the ABC’s audience, which ultimately sparked a flurry of online attacks against Mr V’landys.

One person who wrote on the Racing NSW website said they hope that Mr V’landys would “drop dead”, while another wrote: “Have a good look at yourself in the mirror, you should see an a..hole”.

In the interview, the racing boss said he had no knowledge of the practice taking place in NSW.

The ABC’s investigation, however, identified 14 horses that had been sent to knackeries in the state.

The national broadcaster, however, allegedly did not disclose to Mr V’landys that it had obtained the footage before he fronted the program, and told 7.30 “zero per cent” of horses in NSW were being sent to knackeries.

Mr McClintock said the footage would be aired while Mr V’landys is in the witness box in September so Justice Michael Wigney could observe his reaction.