MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The woman involved in a ‘sexting’ scandal with former Australia test captain Tim Paine had her bid to lodge a sexual harassment claim against Cricket Tasmania dismissed on Thursday after a court rejected her explanation for the delay in filing the case.
Renee Ferguson, 47, had missed the deadline to file her case against her former employer by almost three years and was seeking an extension of time in the Federal Court.
Ferguson, who worked as a receptionist at Cricket Tasmania (CT), alleged she was sexually harassed by Paine and CT employees during 2015-17.
Paine denied any wrongdoing and was investigated and cleared by Cricket Australia’s integrity unit in 2018 over lewd text messages he sent to Ferguson.
CT and the employees also denied the allegations.
Ferguson complained of sexual harassment to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2018 but the complaint was terminated in November of that year.
She had until January 2019 to make an application to the Federal Court without requiring prior approval but failed to do so until November 2021, Justice Mordy Bromberg said in notes released by the court.
Ferguson had attributed her delay in filing the case to a rapid deterioration in her “mental and physical health as well as her economic stability”.
However, Bromberg said Ferguson had failed to provide an adequate explanation for the delay.
“I am not satisfied that it is in the interests of the administration of justice to permit Ms Ferguson to make her very late application,” he wrote.
“Conscious of the significant media attention which has been given to this proceeding, I seek to emphasise that my decision is not a vindication of either Ms Ferguson or TCA’s (Cricket Tasmania) version of events.”
Paine stepped down from the captaincy last November and took a break from cricket after the ‘sexting’ affair became known to the public.
In a separate matter, Ferguson has been accused of stealing money from Cricket Tasmania during her employment there and will face a court hearing in February.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutheford)
