‘HE TOLD ME WOMEN SHOULD CONSIDER RAPE A COMPLIMENT’

t didn’t take Erin Mayo long to figure out Don Burke was anything but the affable home gardener Aussies fell in love with during the 17 years Burke’s Backyard dominated Channel Nine. “On one occasion, Don came into my office and out of the blue said, ‘I

Iunderstatement, u but then he got g off on shocking people.” The shocks kept coming. “One day, when we’d been invited to a lunch function, I was wearing a dress and Don remarked, ‘You look like a schoolgirl – I like it,’” she says. “Another time, Don, myself and another employee were sitting in a meeting with potential advertisers (a major retailer) and Don proceeded to tell these clients what they were doing wrong with their business, before calling them “a bunch of c****” to their faces. I was flabbergasted.”

Erin, who was then 29, says what she endured was nothing short of “systematic bullying”, which eventually drove her to quit her “dream job” after being belittled and made to feel stupid for months.

“He would work from home two to three days a week, but every Monday he would be in the office for a management/ production meeting – and I grew to dread Mondays, because I knew that was the day I couldn’t avoid Don.

“Even on the days he was working from home, I used to dread his phone calls. Don described himself as a ‘bear with a sore head’ but that’s putting it mildly – and it got worse when Backyard Blitz [produced by Don] was axed.

“Without other projects to concentrate on, the magazine became his prime focus and the bullying and harassment intensified. I was often in tears and felt sick at the prospect of going into work.”

Erin quit with no job to go to, vowing she wouldn’t allow Don to ruin her life. She later returned to the media industry in a lower paid and more junior role.