The masseuse who said West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle exposed himself to her in a Sydney dressing room was plainly neurotic, bitter and vengeful, a jury has been told.
Gayle's barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, made the submission during his closing address on Friday in the NSW Supreme Court defamation case brought by the cricketer against Fairfax Media.
Gayle says January 2016 articles falsely claimed he intentionally exposed his genitals to, and indecently propositioned, Leanne Russell in the West Indies dressing room during a Sydney training session at the 2015 World Cup.
Gayle has told the jury he was "devastated" by the false and humiliating claims, while his teammate Dwayne Smith testified he was in the dressing room at the time and the exposure did not happen.
But Ms Russell said Gayle had pulled out and down a towel he was wearing and asked: "Are you looking for this?".
"I saw the top half of Chris's penis, I apologise, and I thereafter shielded my view," she said.
Mr McClintock said the case was "absolutely dripping in malice", saying Fairfax had published "tabloid trash".
"Everyone agrees sexual harassment is wrong," he said.
"This case is not about sexual harassment."
In his closing address on Thursday, Fairfax lawyer Matt Collins QC said Ms Russell had bravely bared her soul to give raw and honest evidence about Gayle.
Fairfax's defences include a contention that the claims were true.
Justice Lucy McCallum is expected to give the four-person jury legal directions on Monday before they begin their deliberations.
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