The Journo Investigating Don Burke Has Been Overwhelmed With More Allegations

Australia’s own Weinstein situation is kicking off hard, with veteran TV personality Don Burke being accused of sexually predatory and bullying behaviour. Since publishing the accusations this morning, investigative journalist Kate McClymont has confirmed that she has received a massive 200 extra complaints against the celebrity gardener.

In an interview with the ABC this afternoon, McClymont says that after Tracey Spicer’s call-out over social media, asking for anyone in the entertainment industry who had suffered sexual harassment, “there was one name that was recurring seemingly more than others, and that was the name of Don Burke.” Accusations against him have labelled him as “a high-grade, twisted abuser”, “a sexual predator”, and “a psychotic bully.”

After approaching individuals who had worked with Burke, and as a consequence of the story being released this morning, McClymont has since received an excessively large amount of additional complaints.

“I’ve had at least 200 emails, with people coming forward with further allegations of basically inappropriate behaviour,” said McClymont in the interview.  The yet unsubstantiated complaints not only come from people in the industry, but also from members of the public, who accuse him of “basically grubby kind of behaviour”.

“[The accusations] are from members of the public, they are from people who worked with him in the industry, horticulturists have come forward…” She also goes on to say that Burke’s behaviour was an “open secret” in the industry, and therefore widely known about for many years. Some Channel 9 executives have even agreed to go on the record to say that they’d heard rumours of his behaviour.

“Odd” how Channel 9 execs knew Don Burke to be a most awful human but (a) never had a complaint made to them (b) kept him on air for decades

— Bernard Zuel (@BernardZuel) November 26, 2017

McClymont says that ‘for 17 years, until the ratings began to drop, Don Burke was left to do his thing and a string of mainly female employees but some men as well, paid a huge price for the abuse that they suffered at his hands.”

Don Burke is publicly denying all allegations against him. In a written response, he claimed that his accusations come from “a small number” of former employees who “still bear a strong grudge against me”.

You can watch the ABC interview here:

Journalist @Kate_McClymont says she has received at least 200 additional complaints about #donburke since the story came out this morning pic.twitter.com/4emrrX5ZGC

— ABC News (@abcnews) November 27, 2017

This issue will be continuing on Australian TV tonight. Some of the women making accusations will be speaking out on a 7.30 special, while Burke is sitting down for an interview with Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair.