ABC host wears yoghurt-thrower’s fury

ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales has been attacked by an audience member with a tub of yoghurt.

ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales has been attacked by an audience member who hurled a tub of ­yoghurt at her while she was ­delivering a speech at a Perth ­literary festival.

Sales was visibly shaken as the 200g tub of blueberry yoghurt struck the lectern at which she was standing. It was thrown with such force that it exploded, with the noise amplified by a nearby microphone.

The contents of the tub sprayed Sales’s legs, the stage and the curtains behind her. She stepped to the side and was ­momentarily speechless.

Yoghurt being lobbed at Leigh Sales. Picture: Facebook

As two security guards marched the man from the auditorium of the State Library of Western Australia, Sales said: “Wow. Thank you very much to our security people for dealing with that. Thank you.”

A 49-year-old man was later charged with common assault. A police charge sheet said only that the man was “upset and disagreed with the views being presented”.

The yoghurt was thrown as Sales spoke of a medical emergency that endangered her life and the life of her unborn son.

Angela Liveris, who was among the 750-strong audience, said she heard the man say something that sounded like “20,000 men” as he was being led away. Another witness thought he ­mentioned World War II.

Oh dear, have just landed from the Perth-Syd flight to a kerfuffle over something minor - thanks for the concern, I'm totally fine! Just relieved everyone at the festival was okay and thank you to security, police, audience etc.

— Leigh Sales (@leighsales) July 28, 2019

The attack happened as Sales spoke at the Disrupted Festival of Ideas where entry was free.

The previous day, anti-vaccination activists took advantage of this and berated another guest, scientist Karl Kruszelnicki, also known as Dr Karl. Sales was stoic as the man was taken away and insisted she was fine to continue her speech.

The story of the uterine rupture that endangered her life, and the life of her son, is central to how she reached her decision to write Any Ordinary Day about the strengths of Australians who have lived through random tragedy.

She wondered out loud how things could have been different if the man who approached the stage had been armed with something more than yoghurt.

“All of us will experience grief and suffering. It’s part of the human package, I dread all of the anticipated losses of life like my mother’s death, the slow decline of age all of those kinds of things,” she said.

“Those prospects don’t terrify me as much as the idea of something unexpected happening, something that turns your life upside down instantly like say if that man had actually had a gun or a knife or something like that.”

The library where Sales spoke is in the heart of Perth and faces a paved area of public open space where homeless people often congregate.

The Australian has been told the man who threw the yoghurt is seen there often and “known to ­library staff”.

The man is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court next month.