Posted on 01/19/2006 9:33:19 PM PST by naturalman1975
FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham almost ran over a TV cameraman outside his Sydney home today, just a day after he threw a punch at a photographer and smashed up his camera.
Channel 7 is examining footage and taking legal advice on the incident this morning outside Mr Latham's home in south-west Sydney.
The photographer was uninjured but Seven's head of news in Sydney, Chris Willis, said the footage clearly showed Mr Latham's car veer toward the cameraman as he stood on the side of the road.
"Latham backs out of the driveway," Mr Willis said, "and you can see the car swerving to the left and the mirror hits the cameraman."
Yesterday Mr Latham, a candidate for prime minister in the 2004 election, reportedly threw a punch at photographer Ross Schultz of Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper, called him a pedophile, and destroyed one of his cameras.
Daily Telegraph editor David Penberthy said today the newspaper was seeking $12,000 from Mr Latham to replace the lost equipment.
The incident happened in Sydney's southwest yesterday, as the newspaper prepared a story to mark the first anniversary of Mr Latham's political downfall.
Schultz began photographing Mr Latham as he emerged from a Hungry Jack's restaurant, where he had been having lunch with his two sons Oliver and Issac.
"He basically came charging out of Hungry Jack's like a bull at a gate, asked the photographer who he was and Ross said 'I'm Ross Schultz from The Daily Telegraph'," Penberthy said.
"And Latham started screaming at him saying you're a pedophile, you're a pedophile.
"We've got a couple of witnesses who were there ... he grabbed the camera, threw a punch but didn't land any."
Penberthy said Mr Latham then put his children in the car and drove home, where he allegedly destroyed the camera.
"It looks like he spent a good hour hopping into it with a claw hammer, it's incredible," Penberthy said.
"We went out to the Campbelltown police station last night to report the fracas with the man who would've been prime minister (but) mainly to get our property back.
"Our understanding is that after he'd pinched the camera from the photographer at the Hungry Jack's car park he sped off, took it home, took it into the shed and basically systematically destroyed it with what looks like a hammer."
"It is in several hundred pieces. It's incredible."
Penberthy said the paper would probably not take legal action over the attack on Mr Schultz but would pursue Mr Latham for the cost of the camera.
He defended the actions of the paper, saying photos had been taken of Mr Latham, not his sons.
He said Mr Latham remained a person of legitimate public interest.
"Mark Latham's the guy who when he was opposition leader made a huge song and dance about the obscene generosity of the parliamentary superannuation scheme - he forced (Prime Minister) John Howard to amend the scheme, albeit for new MPs, not for people such as himself," he said.
"Now he's quite happily and quite faithfully living on $75,000 a year courtesy of the Australian taxpayer."
The man is clearly mentally unbalanced (to put it mildly).
We should give thanks for our deliverance!
The Left is cracking up. Lets smash them up against the wall to make sure their truely broken...they are threatening our ability to fight eurasia. The gloves are coming off.
That said, I have absolutely no sympathy for the media slime who feel the need to shove a camera in this loser's face when he takes his kids to a MacDonalds.
Scum v Scum.
I certainly agree that the media does seem to be acting inappropriately. He has left public life and his kids never chose to be part of it - their privacy should be respected.
But at the same time, he should be capable of dealing with this without immediately resorting to violence.
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