The former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella has won a defamation case against a country Victorian newspaper which wrongly claimed she had pushed a political opponent.
A six-person jury deliberated for about an hour at the Victorian county court sitting in Wangaratta on Wednesday before returning their verdict.
Mirabella had sued the weekly newspaper the Benalla Ensign and its editor, Libby Price, over an April 2016 article that said she had “pushed” her political successor as member for Indi, Cathy McGowan.
Mirabella, who lost the seat to McGowan in 2013, said the article defamed her by falsely claiming that she had pushed McGowan out of the way of a photograph for her own political benefit.
The parties were due back in court on Thursday to make submissions about damages.
Mirabella, who lost the seat to McGowan in 2013, claimed the article had a devastating impact and it took months for the newspaper to admit the push did not occur but by then the damage was done.
The article said Mirabella had pushed Ms McGowan as she tried to prevent her having a photo taken with the aged care minister, Ken Wyatt, at the opening of a Benalla facility.
“Sophie felt sick to her stomach because she knew immediately that this article would go viral on the internet,” barrister Georgina Schoff QC said during the trial.
