Rebekah Giles has previously represented Christian Porter. Credit: Steven Siewert
Learning from Lanzer’s playbook, she and lawyer Sue Chrysanthou took a different stance, arguing a malicious falsehood in the NSW Supreme Court for a precautionary order or access to the draft story, which would win. time.
“What we saw happening at the hands of some of the same defendants last year was a broadcast on a cosmetic surgeon named Dr. Lanzer, and there is evidence of that in the affidavit, where the allegations of negligence and Ms. Ferguson’s misconduct was closed. She closed her entire practice a week later and was completely destroyed, “Chrysanthou told the court.
What was not told in court was that Lanzer’s practice was renamed and marketed under a different name, and Lanzer withdrew and left for Israel amid an investigation by the Agency. Australian Health Practitioners Regulation, rather than being destroyed.
Lanzer’s investigation is ongoing, but some of his doctors have put a number of conditions on his medical record, including Daniel Aronov, who can no longer practice as a cosmetic surgeon after being accused of improperly filming unhealthy surgeries and practices.
Lawyer Sue Chrysanthou represented Joseph Ajaka. Credit: AAP
On Friday 13 May, the NSW Supreme Court under Judge Stephen Rothman ruled that the 60 Minutes story was a case of malicious falsity and that the level of damage that could result from publications could be “so great” and irreversible that it was necessary for the contents of the draft to be delivered, rather than following the normal course of filing a defamation claim after the fact, if justified.
The order was made without knowing the content of the story. Rothman saw the questions and a brief television promotion, which did not mention the industry or Cosmos, but Chrysanthou “anticipates[d] it will be quite sensational given the voice and the music we have heard ”.
Nine asked for the appeal to be suspended. It did so for reasons including the protection of sources, as well as the preservation of the integrity of the stories, which would be seriously compromised if a plaintiff and his attorneys could view draft copies and decide whether to order the story. It was put to the court that it would resemble handing over to the plaintiff the role of editor.
It would take almost a week to get a copy of the court transcript, which turned out to be an edited version of the hearing, with some conversations missing. They included Rothman asking who owned the Herald and The Age, then wondering if it was Murdoch and saying words in the sense that Murdoch owns most of the media.
Over the next few weeks, Ajaka and his associates used some eyebrow-raising methods to influence the story.
He was contacted by a GP, chaplain, media contacts and friends, patients and plastic surgeons, some for “coffee”, some intimidated or emotionally blackmailed.
Numerous messages and calls were made to 60 Minutes staff. A 60 Minutes employee, who had a previous association with Ajaka, began receiving calls shortly before the May 13 court case. “Are you still 60 minutes away?” he asked the employee. In another message he said: “We are asking for a precautionary measure on them at 3.45 in the courts.” At the time, the Nine’s lawyers had not been informed that they would run to court.
As the employee continued to ignore calls, things started to escalate.
That weekend, the Ajaka woman began making calls and leaving messages, followed by a series of Ajaka messages: “Hey … I’m approaching you as a dear friend. You’re someone we’ve let us into our house, someone who has shared our ups and downs (our wedding) our downs (father’s death) … Don’t think we haven’t forgotten you. help “.
It included a screenshot of a photo taken five years earlier with his son and employee.
On Monday, the employee’s GP called to say, “Joe [Ajaka] he called, wanted your address and wanted to see if he could talk to you … “
The GP told him that Ajaka had wanted him to look for the employee’s home address system so that he could send his wife to talk to her about a court case and “find out what’s in the 60’s story.” Minutes … [60 Minutes employee’s name removed for privacy purposes] is the solution. ”
As a safety precaution, Nine took her to a hotel. Then, on Thursday, May 19, her GP contacted her again to tell her that Ajaka had continued to call her and that she had now sent a photo of the building asking, “It’s Is this your place? “
The employee says she received calls from a different cell phone number. When he searched on Google, Cosmos appeared in Double Bay.
Journalists from other channels and from within Nine called 60 Minutes staff to talk about the story. Some were known to be friends with Cosmos or Ajaka.
Cosmos contacted the lawyers of a patient who was suing them. In another case, the family of a patient who underwent failed surgery at Cosmos Melbourne Clinic was contacted by a manager. A community leader contacted another patient to ask him to talk to her about an agreement.
There was also a massive push to clean up the website and social media.
Ajaka’s profile has been updated from “Dr. Joseph Ajaka is an expert and respected in liposuction, fat transfer and injectables” to “Dr. Joseph Ajaka has a special focus on liposuction, fat transfer and injectables”.
Months earlier, he abandoned the term cosmetic surgeon for website and business cards.
Hundreds of posts disappeared from the Internet but we captured them all. Deleted posts include Cosmos doctors dancing in theaters and a video of Ajaka kneeling beside a naked patient from the waist down while a contestant on the American reality TV show The Voice plays the piano meters away. distance.
Other deleted videos include an Instagram Ajaka post by doctors wearing masks of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump along with the message: “We got some RARE pictures of these 3 political leaders … #Vladimir Putin, “KimJongUn and @realdonaldtrump … which leader would you choose to do your surgery?!? Go to @cosmosclinic for more Halloween treats. “
Some of the riskiest posts have also disappeared. They include photos on Instagram posted by Cosmos of women in skimpy dresses wearing devil horns and with the tag “#clientof cosmos babes get their spook on”.
A woman posing on all fours on a coffee table in leopard skin clothes, women with bright breasts and a patient dressed in rabbit ears with one-piece transparent underwear and the label “trick or treat?” magnificent #clientofcosmos definitely looks like a delight “. Other deleted posts include a video posted by Cosmos with the words “booty-licious” to describe a woman’s BBL transformation.
Interestingly, the video of Ajaka doing liposuction while looking at the camera instead of the patient has also come out just like a post she made after appearing on Sky News, where she said, “F —, I look good on TV. That’s why I decided to start my own clinic. “
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But one of the most troubling aspects of the delay in history was that two patients ended up in hospital after complications in the Sydney Cosmos.
One underwent a Brazilian gluteal lift and developed a serious infection and was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital. Another ended up at Sydney Adventist Hospital, San, in Wahroonga, NSW.
Exposing the real side of cosmetic surgery is almost impossible for wealthy cosmetic surgeons to crush people into silence.
In October, this headline finally received a series of stories in the clinics of the famous cosmetic surgeon Daniel Lanzer, but not before an attempt to demand it, in addition to sending threatening legal letters to surgeons. plastics and former employees so that they do not speak out or face harmful legal law. action and in the case of plastic surgeons the release of a dirt file in failed surgeries.
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When the stories came out, hundreds of patients came up with shocking stories. A woman ended up in the ICU in critical condition after bleeding heavily in a hotel bed while her partner tried to contact the doctor who had performed cosmetic surgery the day before.
The stories exposed system defects that allow a doctor with a basic medical degree to call himself a cosmetic surgeon and perform complex surgeries, such as facelift and tummy tuck, with minimal training. They also showed how health authorities give up to six weeks ’notice of an audit, which allows professionals to make the facility boat-shaped.
These kinds of stories are in the public interest. They save lives.
The traps set by Cosmos and Ajaka in an attempt to stop history have obstructed the courts, threatening media freedoms for the purpose of identifying sources to try to kill history.
He pushed for NSW policy Abigail Boyd to make a speech in parliament, warning of what was at stake. “[The] Events in the NSW Supreme Court should be of concern to all journalists in Australia and anyone concerned with forcing corporations and powerful elites to be held accountable for atrocious conduct, ”he said.
“The floodgates will be opened for the rich and powerful to exercise the powers of the court if they suspect that they will not like the story being told about them.
“If this order is maintained, it would send a terrifying shock wave into the world of public interest journalism, to the detriment of our democracy and to the benefit of the rich and powerful.”