The estranged wife of former Carlton president Luke Sayers has indicated she wants a jury to decide the defamation trial she is bringing in the wake of his ‘d*** pic’ saga.
Neither the ex-PwC boss or Cate Sayers were present during the brief directions hearing at the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday morning.
Leading defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, who is representing Cate Sayers, told Judicial Registrar Andrew Baker her client preferred for the trial to be decided by jury – but she forgot to tick a box on paperwork.
It was decided any applications to amend writs, what the mode the trial and a possibility the matter will be transferred to the Federal Court will must be made by mid-May.
In the meantime, the high-profile trial has been pencilled in to kick-off in the Victorian Supreme Court on November 23 and it is expected to last for five to seven days if it is not kicked over to the Federal Court.
The former couple are in a legal stoush after Cate sued the besieged former AFL club president for defamation.
She launched the Supreme Court action after a d*** pic scandal escalated into an ugly and public fallout which cost Sayers his marriage and his footy job.
Cate accuses her ex-husband in court documents of blaming her for publishing a picture of his penis on his X account at 7.40am on January 8, 2025.
Cate and Luke Sayers are now battling each other at court
Cate accuses her ex-husband in court documents of blaming her for publishing a picture of his penis on his X account
The post also tagged Naomi Driver, a female executive from Bupa, one of Carlton’s principal sponsors.
Despite the AFL clearing Sayers, he stepped down as club president anyway.
‘Leading the Carlton Football Club has been one of the great honours and privileges of my life,’ he said in his departing statement on January 22 that year.
According to court documents, Cate alleges she was defamed after Sayers provided a statutory declaration to the AFL Commission’s integrity unit while he was being investigated over the photo.
Cate further claims she was shunned by the AFL community after Sayers lodged his stat dec with league investigators, it was alleged in court documents.
In a declaration of legal warfare, Cate’s lawyers allege Sayers revealed intimate details about her ‘sexual history and mental health’ which was purposely meant to paint his then-wife as ‘unstable, untrustworthy, erratic, mentally disturbed’.
Sayers, a director of consultancy firm Tenet, formerly known as Sayers Group, lodged his defence to the defamation proceedings on Wednesday.
In his defence, Sayers claims that Cate told him ‘let’s see how you get out of this one’ a day after the infamous image was posted on social media.
Sayers stood down as Carlton president amid the ‘d*** pic’ scandal
Top barrister Matt Collins KC is representing Mr Sayers. He told the court that the case contained ‘highly sensitive family matters’.
Sayers also claims in court documents that the image was taken for medical purposes and that Cate knew about the medical reason for the photo, while also accusing her of accessing his phone and taking ’emails, text messages and photographs’.
It is further alleged that Cate swiped a ‘confidential and legally privileged’ draft statement to the AFL Integrity Unit to use as evidence against him, according to his defence lodged with the Supreme Court.
Sayers, who is pursuing a qualified privilege defence rather than a truth defence, also claims, via court documents, he was showering when the image was posted to X.
Sayers maintains his phone had been left in the bedroom of the hotel room the family was staying in during a trip to Italy at the time.
He also claimed his X account had been managed by personal assistants and that his wife was aware he had a professional relationship with the Bupa executive who was swept into the storm.
Sayers, in his defence, also claims that the statement he gave to the AFL ‘was true and correct to the best of his knowledge’.
Neither Luke or Cate were present during Friday’s court hearing
‘[Documentation] supported his reasonable and genuine belief that there were grounds to suspect that Cate may have published the X post, though she denied doing so,’ Sayers’ defence states.
‘He did not knowingly publish any false information in, and stands by the contents of, the statutory declaration.’
In her first legal rocket fired last week, Cate, in her claim, alleges Sayers disclosed information that she suffered ‘from mental illness’ and was prescribed medication by her doctors which she ‘periodically refuses to take’.
It is also alleged Sayers breached Cate’s confidence by disclosing information regarding her ‘personal relationships with her family members’, documents reveal.
Cate, who founded a not-for-profit organisation which provides fitness programs for people with Down syndrome, is seeking damages for ‘significant distress, hurt and embarrassment’ and argues she is entitled to an ‘award of equitable compensation’.
She has also requested to see a copy of the statutory declaration Sayers provided to the AFL as part of the claim.
During their investigations, it is alleged the AFL did not speak to Cate regarding accusations she had published the lewd photo on her then-husband’s X account.
Sayers seemed relaxed as he and Elms sipped on coffee
‘The conclusion of the AFL inquiries, the Carlton process, AFL media statement and Carlton media statement legitimised the statutory declaration and implied to the public in answer to the question begged above… that Luke’s evidence should be trusted and that his wife, Cate, posted the X post,’ Cate’s Supreme Court claim states.
‘From shortly after the publication of the statutory declaration by Luke, and continuing thereafter, Cate has been shunned and avoided by persons she knew and had relationships with, who are involved with the AFL, Carlton, the game of AFL generally and others who knew Luke and Cate.’
Cate is understood to have learned of the ‘d*** pic’ via a close friend, while her ex-husband, with whom she shares four children, quickly deleted the post but not before it was screenshotted and widely circulated online.
‘Sorry, my account has been hacked, please ignore all posts,’ Sayers wrote at the time.
The trial update comes the day after the Daily Mail revealed Sayers was out in public with his new flame, marketing manager Alexandra Elms.
Elms appeared cosy while with Sayers
Elms previously dated V8 Supercars driver James Courtney in 2019
Sayers, previously the CEO of PwC Australia, was seen on Wednesday afternoon strolling hand-in-hand with Elms.
The pair appeared cosy while walking through a park near Sayers’ multimillion-dollar East Melbourne apartment, joined by his daughter Claudia and a family dog.
Sayers, who declined to speak when approached by the Daily Mail, seemed relaxed as he and Elms sipped on coffee while swinging their embraced hands.
Details of the relationship are unclear, but they are close enough for Sayers’ other daughter Bronte to be following Elms on Instagram.
Elms previously dated V8 Supercars driver James Courtney in 2019, following his very public break-up with ex-wife Carys a year earlier.
The Sayers’ defamation trial will be back at court at a later date.
