Nine-owned mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age will be made to pay West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle $300,000 in damages, after losing an appeal against the defamation ruling.
The legal action comes after the papers accused Gayle of exposing himself to a female masseuse during the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia.
Gayle successfully sued the publication in the supreme court in 2017, with four jurors believing the cricketer who claimed the masseuse fabricated the story.
He was then awarded $326,112 in damages for the story last year by Justice Lucy McCallum.
However, both sides disagreed with the ruling, with the mastheads arguing they did not receive a fair trial and Gayle suggesting the damages were “manifestly inadequate”.
Gayle has not been awarded aggravated damages.
It is another blow for Nine-owned publications this week, after ringside doctor John O’Neill was awarded $385,000 in damages in a defamation case against the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
