Over the last year or so, one half of the Sydney pop duo known as Royel Otis has been trying to fight a swarm of anonymous comments on Reddit branding him a “predator” who allegedly had a non-consensual sexual relationship with a minor. He denies the allegations.
Leroy Bressington, who goes by the stage name Royel Maddell, has previously appealed to Reddit directly in a (failed) bid to get the platform to hand over user details. He tried and failed again late last year, when he asked the District Court of Northern California to force Reddit to hand over the details.
Now it looks like he could be set to have another crack, with the help of high-profile defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, according to two sources familiar with the situation, after she was brought in to help the pop star mount defamation proceedings in Australia. Chrysanthou declined to comment.
Still, it could be a while before he gets there. Bressington, with the help of Chrysanthou, first needs to figure out who is behind the posts before they can launch action.
The failed US application follows the playbook of one of Chrysanthou’s former clients, Dr Cesidio Colagrande, a Gold Coast cosmetic doctor who successfully sued one of his rivals after the man and his wife were unmasked as the authors of a negative review on the website, RateMDs.com.
One option being chewed over would be to bring a preliminary application for discovery against Reddit in Australia.
Then there’s the possibility that one of the alleged defamatory Reddit comments ends up being captured by Google and surfacing in its search results, which could offer Bressington’s legal team another route to action, given the search giant’s commercial arrangement with Reddit.
Either way, you can trust we’ll be watching on with great interest.
Judith’s generous top-up
There are few Australian billionaires whose charitable endeavours draw the same level of intrigue as those of Judith Neilson.
Neilson, who owns the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, underwrites the efforts of both the Judith Neilson Foundation, whose efforts are mostly targeted to communities in Africa, as well as the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
And it’s not every year that those charities record major cash replenishments. Last year, however, Neilson’s trusts made donations of nearly $120 million to both charities.
According to recent financial accounts filed with the charities regulator, which have gone unreported until now, the Judith Neilson Foundation recorded $100 million in donation income and a further $16.7 million in investment income.
The deluge of cash, we’re told, will help the Judith Neilson Foundation ramp up its work in Africa, where it dedicates roughly three-quarters of its resources; the remaining efforts focus on women and girls in Australia. Asked to comment, the foundation’s chief executive Simon Freeman said there were plans to “increase overall giving” and expand the team on the ground in Africa.
When asked about the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, however, Freeman kept his cards a little closer to his chest. The institute, which is run as a separate organisation, was at the centre of a high-profile bust-up in 2022 which resulted in a clearout of its board and management.
Naturally, the institute has become a point of hyperfixation for media types across the country in the years since.
Further fuelling intrigue around the Neilson’s journalism philanthropy is what the charity has in store for the $2 million in donations it scooped up in the 2025 financial year. Freeman was reluctant to talk about it, but he did say there are plans for a grand reveal this year.
“On the JNI side, we have a team in place who are working on a couple of projects, but because they’re journalists, I can’t tell you what they’re actually doing. We will be more forthcoming later this year,” Freeman told CBD.
We’re on tenterhooks.
Crypto bro splashes cash on Labor
One of the names that caught our eye as we pored over the latest dump of political donation data published on Monday was that of billionaire Stake co-founder Ed Craven.
The unassuming 30-year-old crypto bro donated $315,000 to the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party in the 2024-25 financial year, according to disclosures released by the Australian Electoral Commission. We can only guess why.
Might it have anything to do with greasing the wheels for his online sweepstakes casino Stake, which is illegal to use in Australia? Craven’s people declined to comment.
Stake has recorded explosive growth in recent years, with about 100 million visitors in December and billions in revenue. The platform has also splashed a heap of cash on high-profile sporting tie-ups, which have included a stint as the shirt sponsor for Everton football club in the UK, and being a partner of the Sauber Formula One team. What’s a little extra on top to get a bid in with the party of government?
Craven, of course, isn’t the only Australian corporate to make political donations over the past year, nor is he the biggest spender. Still, he’s among a rising class of young Australian tech billionaires seemingly eager to exercise the same soft power leveraged by those who came before them. We guess we’ll have to wait and see what it gets him.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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