Bombshell twist in Guy Sebastian’s court case

Guy Sebastian has demanded a media gag order over his bitter legal dispute with his elderly neighbor, shortly after speaking to the media about the dispute while promoting his new perfume.

Sebastian, 41, accused his neighbor Phillip Hanslow, 66, of threatening to kill him in January amid a long-running dispute over the fence dividing their property in Maroubra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Hanslow is fighting allegations that he bullied the singer and damaged their shared fence, with the help of celebrity attorney Bryan Wrench.

Despite Sebastian telling Mr Hanslow at the time that there was CCTV footage of the alleged incident, prosecutors revealed at Waverley Local Court on Thursday that the camera was “not working” at the time and there was no footage.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Alex Borg told magistrate Ross Hudson that the pop star believes he “has been portrayed as the villain” and does not want to testify in person.

He also said that Sebastian felt “the media was not being fair” and that he, as an alleged victim of crime, was being “vilified”.

Justice Hudson asked if the request for the suppression order, along with the request for Sebastian not to attend court, was because he felt ‘unsafe’ due to media reports, or if it would be too emotionally draining for him. he do it.

But Mr Wrench chimed in, saying his neighbor Mr Hanslow had also been “damaged by the prosecution, tainted by the case too”.

Mr Wrench noted that Sebastian had given four interviews “talking about this court case in the media, so it’s a bit disingenuous to say you don’t want this case out there in the public eye.”

He was referring to an interview in Sunrise on March 10 in which he said that some of the claims against him were “completely fabricated.”

Sebastian also did two interviews on Wednesday, the day before he applied for a gag order, with Channel 7 and the Daily Telegraph, during which he said he was “sorry” for getting into the legal dispute in the first place.

Wrench noted that some of Sebastian’s interviews mentioned the court case during promotional appearances for his perfume, Embrace, which launched on Wednesday.

It also emerged in court Thursday that there are no security cameras of the dispute between the neighbors, despite Sebastian telling Hanslow “too bad there’s a camera there” and pointing to his mansion’s security cameras during the argument. in january.

Wrench disputed the lack of CCTV footage and the fact that Sebastian initially provided only two videos of the mobile phone encounter, when a third was produced after a subpoena was issued last week.

Sergeant Borg said the late discovery of the third video, which Wrench said last week showed Sebastian being “demeaning, provocative and sarcastic” with Hanslow, was a police error.

Sebastian’s lawyers said “all that could have been produced has been” and that the only CCTV was “a screenshot of footage that is not of the incident but shows the street” where Sebastian lives.

Hudson adjourned the matter until April 3, saying the arguments for and against the applications could be “properly aired … and not rushed.”

Mr. Hanslow was arrested in January, charged with damaging property, and received an apprehended violence warrant for Sebastian’s protection.

Outside court, Mr Hanslow previously told Daily Mail Australia that his neighbor was a “vengeful” person.

“He’s paranoid about security and he’s got a big security camera outside so anywhere he goes off the property he can see…” he claimed earlier this month.

We’re going to have to sell. We are too old for this.

During a television interview, Sebastian claimed that a lot had been said about the court case “that’s not true”.

“This is an ongoing thing, not an isolated event, there was something that happened between me and him where I basically asked him to stop damaging my property,” he said.