Two women have reportedly come forward with disturbing new accusations against former cricketer Michael Slater.
The 52-year-old was on Wednesday sentenced to a two-year community corrections order and a second good behaviour bond for two years after he was convicted on domestic violence charges.
He also plead guilty to three charges of common assault, intimidation, attempted stalking, using a carriage service with intent to threaten a woman, and contravening a restraining order.
Two women have now come forward to tell their accounts of previous relationships they had with the former opening batter.
Speaking under the condition of having their identities hidden, the women have told The Sydney Morning Herald they were left “a shell of a person” and “broken” by the end of their relationships with the cricketer.
The new accounts come after a woman in August said she received sickening text messages from the former cricketer — including threats of having personal photos he took of her without her knowledge or consent being shared.
The Sydney Morning Herald now reports one woman referred to as “Emma” claims Slater searched through her rubbish and inbox looking for things to accuse her of.
She says in the report she was left “sick to the stomach” following situations where the cricketer accused her of cheating on him and also sent her abusive messages.
“He’d go through my inbox, my rubbish, he’d sneakily get my pin code and go through it, looking for some grounds to accuse me of being untoward,” she said.
“He had an app on my phone so he could track me. He’d say, ‘who are you having sex with?’”
She said she woke up one morning to 168 missed calls and messages the cricketer sent her.
She says one message said: “Who are you f***ing? I know you’re being unfaithful.”
She said another message said: “You slut, you whore”.
“You’d be made to feel like you’re the world’s worst person,” she said.
“You start to question yourself. ‘Maybe that did make him feel insecure? Maybe I need to support him more?’ I would just feel sick in my stomach.”
She said a threat of having intimate video footage of her secretly filmed by Slater “just broke me”.
Another woman to have spoken to The Sydney Morning Herald under the condition of having her identity protected said Slater “blew up my life”.
The woman referred to as “Anna” says she was made to feel guilty when leaving the relationship, which she says has left her emotionally and financially devastated.
“It’s cost me a fortune to get out of that relationship,” said Anna.
“As if I want to put a civil case against someone like that? What price could I put on the trauma I’ve suffered? The guilt I felt leaving that relationship, and the worry it caused some of the people around me … it took me a long time to forgive myself. He blew up my life.”
Slater avoided jail, despite his convictions.
The Manly Local Court on Wednesday heard he grabbed for the phone and grabbed at his ex, who lost her balance and injured her hip. Slater threatened self-harm several times throughout the day.
The incident was reported to the police by a member of the public who was concerned about Slater’s behaviour.
A couple of months later, Slater was involved in a physical fight with another patient at the Northern Beaches Hospital while he was there for mental health treatment. He was also charged with intimidating the man during the altercation.
The court heard Slater, over the months of April to September, breached an apprehended violence order in place to protect an ex-girlfriend living in Freshwater.
The court heard he contacted the woman with more than 100 messages, emails and calls when he had been directed not to communicate with her. The woman reported he had “slurred speech” during the calls, the court was told.
Slater’s lawyer, John Agius SC, told the court the recent break-up had sent Slater “down a deep dark tunnel”.
The ex-cricket commentator for Channel 7 was arrested on September 22 after the woman made several triple-0 calls.
Slater appeared in court from the beachside rehabilitation facility in Sydney’s Bronte wearing a light blue suit and a crisp white shirt.
Agius applied for the seven charges to be dismissed on mental health grounds after telling the court his client was being treated for bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorder, and borderline personality disorder.
The court heard the former cricketer previously had domestic violence charges dismissed on similar grounds.
Agius told the court Slater had recently been diagnosed with likely bipolar disorder by a psychologist, which was supported by reports from two treating doctors.
He said the ex-cricket star was living with a “significant mental impairment” when he allegedly committed the offences before the court.
“That’s significant because if he has bipolar disorder and he’s not being treated for it, then … it’s likely that any treatment he has had hasn’t treated the whole of his condition,” his lawyer argued.
He said Slater’s offences were a result of his bipolar disorder and “not the result of intoxication”.
The lawyer argued the charges should be dismissed because of his client’s diagnosis and his self-driven participation in several residential rehabilitation programs since the beginning of his alleged offences.
“He should be given one more chance. He should be given that chance because his likely bipolar disorder had not been diagnosed at the time,” he said.
“He clearly wasn’t in control of his behaviour.”
The court heard Slater had been consistently treated for childhood trauma since he was 13 years old.
“He used sport to overcome that trauma,” Magistrate Robyn Denes said.
“He has also used and abused alcohol from a young age.”
During his career as a cricketer, Slater played 74 Test matches and 42 one-day internationals for Australia between 1993 and 2001.
He scored 5312 Test runs for Australia before he transitioned to television commentary for Nine and Seven.
Slater lost his career when he was “sacked as a commentator” and was ostensibly exiled from the cricket community.
“He missed the funerals of dear friends whom he had played with and with whom he was a dear friend because of his ostracising by others,” he explained.
The court was told the former Australian cricketer wanted to continue his efforts at rehabilitation after spending more than 125 days in rehab facilities since the initial offence.
Denes dismissed the two assault charges and one intimidation charge related to the violent fight at the hospital on mental health grounds.
However, she convicted Slater for the domestic violence charges after finding he had shown “no self reflection as to the offending conduct” or the harm inflicted on the victims.
“There are some alarming aspects to that offending conduct … it is all controlling behaviour,” the magistrate said.
“Threats of self harm in the conduct of a relationship are viewed as controlling and manipulative conduct, making the other person responsible.”
Although she acknowledged his mental health struggles, the magistrate noted the seriousness of domestic violence charges and said it was “not always appropriate to deter” offenders on mental health grounds.
She said a conviction was “warranted and would be expected by the community” for the charges of assault, intimidation, using a carriage service to harass, and contravention of the restraining order.
— with NCA NewsWire
