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Cate Sayers has had a win in defamation action against her husband and former Carlton president, Luke Sayers, with a judge ruling it would not be in the interests of justice to move the case to a federal court.
Justice Andrew Watson handed down the judgment on Wednesday saying he accepted Cate Sayers’ submission that moving it out of the Supreme Court would create reporting restrictions around the case and potentially prevent public vindication if she were to win.
Watson flagged that the matter could be heard in the Supreme Court in November and provide an “expeditious resolution” of the matters.
But he indicated the matter should proceed as a judge-alone trial, dismissing Cate Sayers’ application for a jury to hear the case.
Legal representatives for Luke Sayers had earlier applied to have the defamation lawsuit moved from the Supreme Court of Victoria to a federal court, where the matter could be privately heard in the family division.
Cate Sayers claims defamatory and false material about her – including that she posted an image of her husband’s penis to X, was mentally ill, and failing to taking medication – was penned in a statuary declaration her husband sent to various people involved in, or associated with, the AFL in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
This action, she alleges, caused serious harm to her reputation from a breach of confidence and was an invasion of her privacy.
In his defence, Luke Sayers admits to sending the document to the AFL’s general counsel, Stephen Meade, and barrister Christopher Townshend, KC, who was assisting the Carlton Football Club, but denies there was more widespread publication.
Cate Sayers’ legal team argued the case should be publicly heard in the Supreme Court in hopes of the mother being “vindicated”.
Last week, text messages between the couple immediately after the lewd photo scandal erupted were released by the court and showed the former Carlton Football Club president tried to claim no one thought his wife was responsible for posting the nude picture.
At the time, Cate Sayers was in Europe, and her husband revealed he was leaving his football club, and flying to meet her in Italy.
Upon landing in Italy, Luke Sayers told Cate his heart was breaking that she was upset, that he loved her, and that no one thought she had posted the image, telling her they must both ignore the media.
Cate Sayers said she had received “a swuillion [sic] messages from people” in Australia about the incident and that everyone still believed she had accessed his X account and made the post.
“No they don’t … I was very clear about pursuing this hack privately from this day forward,” the husband wrote.
Cate Sayers replied that she was furious and needed space, telling her husband to “find another hotel”.
“You saved yourself and again dumped me right in it as the person who accessed your account. Read the media narrative. I am gutted and don’t think I can ever return to Australia now,” she wrote.
Luke Sayers’ messages are allegedly at odds with what he told the AFL and the football club in January 2025 in a confidential document
In it, he allegedly claimed Cate was responsible for photo being posted to his X account, which remained online for 13 minutes on January 8 in 2025, and that she was mentally unwell and failing to take her medication.
This conflicting account is at the centre of legal proceedings in the Supreme Court after Cate Sayers launched defamation action.
At the time of allegedly penning the statutory declaration, Luke Sayers was the subject of an investigation by the AFL integrity following the post.
His barrister Matt Collins, KC, said his client “published a statutory declaration in good faith” with documents filed with the court suggesting Luke Sayers “genuinely and reasonably believed” Cate had published the “medical photograph” on X.
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