The masseuse at the centre of the defamation lawsuit filed by Windies star Chris Gayle told a New South Wales courtroom that she was left in tears after the player revealed the top half of his penis in a changing room during the 2015 World Cup.
Based on the account put forward by former Windies masseuse Leanne Russell, she had entered the changing room in search of a sandwich when she encountered Gayle, who was clad in a towel, along with teammate Dwayne Smith.
“Chris asked me what I was looking for…I said, ‘A towel’. And he said, ‘Are you looking for this?’ I saw the top half of Chris’s penis and I shielded my eyes and left the room,” Russell told the court.
“I said ‘No’ and I walked out.”
Russell recounted that she later went to the stands and claimed the incident had left her upset and shaken.
“I was very upset that a team that I had known for so long would treat me that way,” Russell said.
“I was very upset,” she added.
“I was crying uncontrollably. I was crying like a child. I was upset because of what Chris had done because I’d known him for 10 years.”
“I was sick of being treated that way. I was someone who had forged my career in sport. I would never be as successful as I would be if I was a man.”
Gayle has strongly refuted that the incident ever occurred and has been backed up by Smith, who was also present. The cricketer is suing Australia media entity Fairfax whose subsidiaries first broke the story.