Gayle wins court case

International cricketer Chris Gayle has won his defamation battle against Australian publisher Fairfax Media after a NSW Supreme Court jury found he did not expose himself to a massage therapist in a Sydney dressing room.

The jury also found Fairfax was motivated by malice in publishing a series of reports alleging the West Indies player exposed himself to a team masseuse in February 2015.

The jury of three women and one man took less than two hours to decide yesterday that Fairfax had not established a defence of truth to the reports.

Gayle, 38, had told the court the allegations, made by team masseuse Leanne Russell, were ‘‘heartbreaking’’ and he felt compelled to come to court to ‘‘clear my name’’.

His teammate, Dwayne Smith, was present in the dressing room at the time of the alleged incident. He insisted it ‘‘did not happen’’ and said ‘‘that’s something you would remember’’ if it did happen.

Gayle’s barrister, Burce McClintock, SC, had urged the jury to accept his client’s ‘‘moving and true’’ testimony.

Fairfax had defended the articles on two bases, including the allegations were true. The jury rejected that defence.

It had also pleaded the defence of qualified privilege, which requires a publisher to show defamatory articles were of public interest and it acted reasonably.

The defence can be defeated by malice, meaning the articles were published for an improper purpose. The jury found malice had been established, knocking out the defence of qualified privilege. A hearing on damages will be held at a later date.