Former Australian Olympic sprinter Nova Peris, now a senator, said yesterday the story of her alleged affair with former T&T Olympic sprinter Ato Boldon in 2010 was part of a plot by someone seeking to embarrass her family and extort money from her.
Speaking to her colleagues in the Australian Federal Senate, Peris, who fought back tears throughout her presentation, said the e-mails, which Northern Territory (NT) News political reporter Christopher Walsh based his story on earlier this week, were leaked to him as part of a long-running family dispute.
She said she was told in 2010, via a “representative”, that an “aggrieved party” who had the leaked e-mails was prepared to take action that would “only result in trauma for everyone, especially the children, and damage the reputation of some stakeholders.”
She said she was contacted again on October 9 this year and read the correspondence in the senate. “The first line read ‘I am sending this communication to you today to ensure there is no mistake as to who is responsible for releasing the information in relation to you,’” Peris read.
She said NT News was aware the e-mails were part of the family dispute when it published the story which alleged she used taxpayers’ money to facilitate Boldon’s trip to Australia for a youth athletic training programme so she could pursue him romantically. “The release and publication of these e-mails (was an) attempt to extract money from me and embarrass me and my family,” she said.
Peris told her colleagues, however, that she did not have a copy of the e-mails and could not comment on their authenticity. Both Boldon and Peris have denied the allegations and threatened to sue NT News over the article but Walsh is standing by his story and has promised to reveal more details.