Racing boss Peter V’landys wins access to ABC emails in defamation trial

A judge has rejected the ABC’s bid for correspondence between staff during the production of a contentious exposé to be kept from Peter V’landys.

Emails sent between staff at the ABC’s 7.30 will be released to Peter V’landys, as the racing boss sues to the company and journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna for defamation.

Secret correspondence between senior ABC 7.30 staffers about an exposé on animal cruelty against former racehorses will be released to NSW racing boss Peter V’landys after a judge rejected the public broadcaster’s bid to keep the documents under lock and key.

In a major victory for Mr V’landys, Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney on Monday ordered the ABC to hand over internal correspondence between journalists who were involved in the “production and publication” of the confronting exposé, ‘The Final Race’.

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 the segment which aired on 7.30 last year.

V’landys appearing on 7.30.

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

As part of the wide-ranging order, private emails between Meldrum-Hanna, the segment’s producer Amy Donaldson, and its editor, Fred Shaw, could be handed over to Mr V’landys.

The racing chief’s lawyers believe the documents could support their argument that the ABC had orchestrated a “set up” that had been designed to portray Mr V’landys as a person who “callously permitted the wholesale slaughter” of horses.

In a pre-trial hearing on Monday, Mr V’landys was also permitted to add a claim for aggravated damages backed by the allegation he was “ambushed”.

Justice Michael Wigney described Mr V’landys’s allegation that the ABC had intended to use the report to maximise harm to his reputation as “very serious”.

The ABC has repeatedly denied that the program was defamatory.

Last week, barrister Bruce McClintock SC, appearing for Mr V’landys, 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.

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.

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

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

They argue the ABC did not disclose to Mr V’landys that it had obtained the footage before he fronted 7.30, and said “zero per cent” of horses in NSW were being sent to knackeries.

The court heard last week that one of the racing chief’s confidantes, who had viewed the program, later told Mr V’landys the program was a “10/10 stitch up”.

Justice Wigney threw out subpoenas for animal welfare activist Elio Celotto and veterinarian Professor Paul McGreevy, who were both interviewed in the program.

Mr V’landys had argued that Mr Celotto and Mr McGreevy appeared to have either been involved in obtaining, or provided with, privileged access to the footage.

The matter returns to court in September.