The News Corp-owned The Sunday Telegraph has apologised to former silverchair frontman, Daniel Johns, following incorrect reports the 40-year-old was a regular at an infamous Sydney brothel and sex dungeon known as The Kastle.
In August last year, The Sunday Telegraph ran a front-page story with the headline “King Of The Kastle”. The report showed images of a dishevelled-looking Johns alongside the caption: “Rocker Daniel Johns swaggers out of a notorious bondage dungeon after a two-week bender”.
The article also inferred Johns was a regular at the brothel and had also proven problematic for staff.
Johns immediately responded to the claims, saying he’d never even been inside The Kastle.
His claims backed-up by the brothel’s owner, Miss Scarlett, who tweeted at the time: “In response to today’s Daily Telegraph [sic] article, we state that Daniel Johns was not on the premises nor has been previously.
“We’re unsure of the source of this false information. In our 30 year history, we’ve never revealed the identity of clients and take privacy very seriously,” the tweet read.
Following the publication of the article, Johns immediately launched defamation proceedings against the newspaper, claiming he’d been “been gravely injured” by the piece.
Over the weekend, The Sunday Telegraph published an apology to Johns. It is unclear if the musician was financially remunerated in any way. The apology read:
“On August 11, 2019, The Sunday Telegraph’s front page contained a photograph of musician Daniel Johns and alleged that he was swaggering out of notorious Sydney brothel, The Kastle.
“The story was wrong. Mr Johns was not leaving the brothel and The Sunday Telegraph accepts he has never been there at any other time.”
“Mr Johns was in the area because he had been visiting a friend who lived in the vicinity of The Kastle.”
“We retract the story and we wish to extend a genuine and public apology to Mr Johns and his family for the error and the harm caused.”
Johns has not publicly commented on the apology.
