Amber Harrison threatened to 'destroy' Seven West CEO Tim Worner
Updated
Seven West Media has tendered to a court extraordinary excerpts from emails by former employee Amber Harrison, where she threatened to destroy her former lover Tim Worner, the company's chief executive.
Andrew Bell SC, representing Seven, told the NSW Supreme Court Ms Harrison emailed Mr Worner's executive assistant saying she planned to "finish destroying your idiot boss" after the affair ended at the end of 2014.
"I am out to get him. This is war," Ms Harrison threatened in one email, Dr Bell told the court.
The court also heard that Ms Harrison said she would "unleash a reign of terror" on Mr Worner and she had "a thousand texts from someone that I'm about to blow the roof off with".
Seven West Media is seeking to extend an interim injunction against Ms Harrison which would prevent her from leaking confidential documents that Dr Bell argued have nothing to do with her affair with Mr Worner.
Dr Bell said Ms Harrison had been paid $428,418 as part of her settlement with Seven in the wake of the damaging affair, with conditions which required her "not to make adverse statements" and to keep all documents confidential.
"She has after all been paid a very significant amount of money as the price for promises that we made," Mr Bell told the court.
"If her employment opportunities have suffered it is because of the breach [of the deed]. It has nothing to do with my client."
Harrison copied documents for 'disgraceful purposes'
Dr Bell said Ms Harrison took screenshots from senior Seven executive Bruce McWilliam to members of the Seven board and to Seven's executive committee.
He said Ms Harrison was assembling documents "for her own disgraceful purposes" with the intention of "deploying them to her advantage ... in the future".
Ms Harrison was not in court for today's hearing, but was represented by James Catlin who presented a USB stick containing 900 pages of documents he said were relevant to the case.
Asked by Justice McDougall why the affidavit was relevant, Mr Catlin said they explained "how Ms Harrison related to Mr Worner and how relationships break down".
Representatives for Seven and other related parties requested that the documents be heavily redacted before being released because of "scandalous" material.
'Campaign to cause maximum damage'
Mr Catlin told the court his client was still owed $242,500 under the confidentiality deal.
He said Seven West had stopped making payments to her in March 2015, long before she launched her public battle against the company.
"She has respected the confidentiality while not being paid the price," he said.
Mr Catlin said Seven West had launched a "full-scale media campaign to cause maximum damage" to his client and "vilify her as a thief" as soon as it won the gag order against her last week.
Seven West chairman Kerry Stokes and board member and former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett both made widely publicised criticisms of Ms Harrison last week.
"You have a billionaire, a TV station and an ex-premier going to the media saying she is a thief," said Mr Catlin, who is a former adviser and press secretary to Mr Kennett.
News Corp and Fairfax Media have joined the fight against the injunction, arguing they should be allowed to approach Ms Harrison for her response to public criticism by Mr Kennett because they would otherwise be open to defamation proceedings.
The judge has continued the injunction ahead of the full hearing on March 3.
Follow Peter Ryan on Twitter and via his Main Street blog.
Topics: media, courts-and-trials, management, australia, sydney-2000
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