A barrister who’s suing a Nine News program over experiences she claims falsely implied she stole an Instagram-famous cavoodle has instructed a courtroom she apologised to the canine’s co-owner for insulting his household throughout a dispute to appease him however was not truly “ashamed or embarrassed”.
Gina Edwards is suing A Current Affair and journalist Steve Marshall for defamation over the 2021 reporting of her custody battle with Mark Gillespie, with whom she and her husband Ken Flavell co-owned prized pooch Oscar.
Mr Gillespie had purchased the canine in 2016 and registered Mr Flavell because the secondary proprietor, with the trio performing as a household for the beloved pet, the Federal Court was beforehand instructed.
But in May 2018, Mr Gillespie’s family started caring for Oscar at a property in Wingella, within the NSW Southern Highlands, whereas he was working away as a cruise ship director.
Mr Flavell beforehand instructed the courtroom Oscar appeared to “lose weight” and was “unkempt” when he returned from Wingello.
The courtroom was instructed Ms Edwards and Mr Gillespie had a confrontation in July that 12 months over Oscar’s care association, throughout which he allegedly threatened her with by no means seeing the canine once more, however then instructed her to “keep the f**king dog”.
“He said ‘don’t talk about my f**king family that way’,” Ms Edwards beforehand instructed the courtroom.
During cross-examination on Friday, it was advised to Ms Edwards that Mr Gillespie truly instructed her to “keep the f**king dog for now” however she mentioned that was not true.
Some time after the incident, Ms Edwards mentioned she wished to ship Mr Gillespie an electronic mail as a result of there have been many individuals chatting with him and she or he was involved “things were getting lost”.
“I was told by several people that he was upset,” she mentioned.
“He demanded an apology in writing.”
Ms Edwards she mentioned would have apologised for something if that might finish the dispute.
Orally, she instructed him she was sorry that he took offence that she was insulting his household.
Ms Edwards mentioned he expressed disappointment that there was a delay in her apology.
In her electronic mail, she mentioned there have been “a lot of things” she wrote that had been untruthful.
“I was not ashamed, or embarrassed, or humiliated,” she mentioned.
“I was told to say that because it would appeal to him because of his personality profile.”
Asked if the road was true when she mentioned she noticed his aspect of the problem 100 per cent, she mentioned no and famous he had screamed and scared her in the course of the confrontation.
“I definitely was not telling the truth there. I did not see his side at all,” she mentioned.
Ms Edwards additionally mentioned she was not apologetic for being disrespectful to his household.
Asked a couple of line when she mentioned she was “so very sorry”, she instructed the courtroom she “absolutely was not sorry”.
Ms Edwards mentioned the eventual determination to hunt sole custody of Oscar was based mostly on authorized recommendation.
“The entire dispute mattered personally to me and it affected me deeply that it had come to this point,” she mentioned.
Asked why it was applicable to take the canine from Mr Gillespie, Ms Edwards mentioned: “I disagree that it was his dog.”
“He left the country for 19 months and said it was going to be six months,” she added.
“He was only coming back for short periods of time and had abandoned him to relatives who I believed and Ken believed … were not caring for him properly and who had inappropriately denied access to us, to our property.”
Asked if she was making a pre-emptive strike as a result of she grew to become conscious that Mr Gillespie would possibly transfer to Las Vegas and take Oscar with him, Ms Edwards mentioned that was not the case.
“He couldn’t get into the United States, he had no legal ability to do that,” she mentioned.
The listening to earlier than Justice Michael Wigney continues.
