In a twist to a tale that has baffled from the start, Guy Sebastian has finally addressed the ongoing court case with his neighbour.
The singer was on Sunrise to discuss his fundraising for mental health when the hosts steered conversation towards the dispute, with an uncomfortable Guy initially trying to laugh it off.
“Life is full of challenges. Yourself at the moment, you’re currently involved in a court case with your neighbour,” host Matt Shirvington opened, referencing the years-long feud between Guy and his 66-year-old neighbour, Phillip Richard Hanslow.
“It’s hard, isn’t it? Because you’re a public figure, you’re in the public eye,” Matt continued. “There’ve been some pretty serious allegations though, thrown your way, which haven’t been spoken about publicly. What can you tell us?”
“Well, this is the first question I’m answering about it,” Guy responded. “I’ve chosen to not say anything, I guess I’ve learned now it’s sort of like ‘where do I start’, that’s been so much that’s [been] said that’s not true, and I’m not in a court case with him.
“I haven’t taken an AVO out against this guy. This is an ongoing thing, not an isolated event … there was something that transpired between me and him where I’d asked him, basically, to stop damaging my property.
“And then there was, you know, some things that were said on his part which caused me to have to call the police.”
“And so it’s not me versus him. It’s the police who decided to take the initiative of taking an AVO out.
“And like you said, as a public person, I will cop it, I get it. There’s going to be stuff that’s said but sometimes for me it’s like ‘where do I start’. I mean, there was something that was alleged yesterday, the stuff in the paper today that was just completely fabricated.”
With that, Guy was drawing attention to claims made by his neighbour that Guy had been holding a brick and “towering over” him, and that footage existed of the alleged incident.
Phillip’s lawyer, Bryan Wrench, reportedly told the court that “that footage was not provided to the police, and it would show Mr Sebastian with a brick in his hand towering over our client. That’s why we’re quite concerned that it is served and produced.”
Guy, however, maintained that this did not occur, and went on to voice his concern for his family in the midst of the media frenzy and roiling tension.
“And I think when it has to do with safety and my family – like, I travel for work – and it’s something that I had to address,” he said, “and there’s nothing I can do except for relying on the help of the police to calm this situation down.
“And so yes, there’s a lot that has been said. I don’t actually know where to start, but I guess with today there’s stuff that’s been said, and I know that it’s more of a story to flip the narrative so that I’m the bad guy in some way, it’s just completely not true.”
With Guy choosing there to conclude, Kylie Gillies expressed appreciation on behalf of herself and co-host Matt, before also thanking him for coming in to speak about his fundraising, and for opening up to them.
“That’s kind of why I don’t speak about stuff too,” Guy confessed, “because there’s so much of that stuff in the media that is everyone’s focus, and it makes it hard to do anything that actually means something.”
Images: Sunrise
This article first appeared on Over60.