TV Channel settles with RV operator
The Retirement village behind last year’s “handcuff” story has received a six-figure payment.
Channel Seven has paid a $250,000 settlement to a community-run, Sydney retirement village operator, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The payout was in response to a Today Tonight program in February last year which showed an 84-year old Willoughby Village resident chained to a cupboard with handcuffs.
In the broadcast, journalist Nicholas Boot claimed the hostel resident was being kicked out of the village.
But Lindy Kearns, the CEO of Willoughby Retirement Community Association had told Boot the organisation was taking the resident to court for trying to avoid paying a $250,000 accommodation bond.
The resident had claimed she only had $5000 in assets but she owned an apartment.
It later emerged that Mr Boot had supplied the handcuffs to the resident. He left Channel Seven two weeks after the incident occurred.
In January Mr Boot began working for Channel Ten news on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
