The Australian Sunday Telegraph claimed musician Daniel Johns spent so much time at a brothel called the Kastle that it was his “second home.” He spent, the Telegraph claimed, “up to 18 hours a day there.”
Now Johns, the former frontman for the Australian rock band Silverchair, is suing.
“News Corp did scrub all mention of the story from its website last month but declined to comment when approached by Guardian Australia,” the Guardian reported.
In a statement on Facebook, Johns said the Telegraph never contacted him before publication and the claims were “simply untrue.”
iMediaEthics has written to the Telegraph‘s publisher News Corp. to confirm it didn’t contact him before publication and that it has deleted the article.
“No contact was made with me or my representatives to check the facts before the article was published,” he wrote in part. “I have asked the newspaper for an apology and retraction. Neither has been provided. I have now issued legal proceedings in order to publicly correct the facts and vindicate my reputation.”
Johns continued: “This false reporting has been very hurtful, humiliating, and damaging to me and my family. It is disappointing that the newspaper has not acknowledged this and apologised despite assertions from both myself, and a representative of the Kastle, that I simply was not, and have never been, there. In fact, I never even knew of its existence.”
In addition, the Kastle’s owner sald in a Twitter statement that the story was untrue and Johns “Was not on the premises nor has been previously.”
iMediaEthic has written to Johns’ representative.