Disgraced former Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers has been hit with a fresh legal bombshell after his estranged wife Cate ordered the AFL and Carlton to hand over explosive internal communications tied to the infamous explicit image scandal.
Legal escalation in Supreme Court battle
The latest development in the explosive Supreme Court fight will see senior league officials, club figures and advisers ordered to produce emails, messages and internal documents linked to the fallout from the explicit image that briefly appeared on Sayers' X account during a family trip to Italy in January last year.
The image, which tagged a female executive connected to major Carlton sponsor Bupa, was removed within minutes before Sayers publicly claimed his account had been hacked.
But the scandal detonated behind closed doors, ultimately ending Sayers' tenure at Carlton and triggering a bitter legal war with Cate Sayers, who alleges she was wrongly blamed for the humiliating incident.
Subpoenas issued to AFL and club officials
Court documents reveal Cate Sayers is now demanding access to communications between AFL executives, Carlton officials and members of Luke Sayers' inner circle as she attempts to prove the league's integrity investigation was compromised from the outset.
Among those subpoenaed is AFL corporate affairs boss Sharon McCrohan, who had previously been brought in to help manage the public relations disaster surrounding Sayers after the post went viral. Julie Trainor, a senior executive at Sayers' consulting firm Tenet Advisory and Investments, has also been ordered to hand over records relating to the matter.
The subpoenas reportedly demand 'all written communications' tied to the scandal, with parties warned they could face arrest for failing to comply.
Allegations of flawed AFL investigation
Cate Sayers claims the AFL effectively accepted her husband's account of events without carrying out a proper investigation. According to filings lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court, she alleges league investigators never interviewed her, never seized devices for forensic testing and never properly examined claims surrounding the origin of the image.
Her legal team has accused the AFL of working too closely with Luke Sayers and Carlton while publicly clearing him of wrongdoing. 'The AFL did not carry out an adequate, independent or impartial investigation,' the court documents state.
Cate Sayers is also suing over claims contained in a statutory declaration submitted by her husband during the AFL probe, alleging it included false and deeply personal assertions about her mental health, medical background and private life.
AFL defends its conduct
The AFL has defended its conduct throughout the controversy. 'Around January 2025, the AFL investigated the matter to understand if Luke Sayers had breached AFL rules as a registered official, in his then role as Carlton President,' AFL spokesman Jay Allen said. 'The AFL stands by its process and people in relation to this matter.'
Jurisdiction battle looms
The legal battle is set to intensify again on Monday when Luke Sayers attempts to move the case into the Family Court, a move that would prevent the matter from being publicly aired. Cate Sayers is fighting to keep the case in the Supreme Court and wants the dispute heard before a jury.
