- Blues president has been under intense pressure since news broke
- Denied any wrongdoing and said his X account had been hacked
Embattled Carlton president Luke Sayers has quit his post with the shock announcement coming just minutes after he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the AFL after a graphic sexual image was sent from his X account.
The end of his 12-year involvement with the club at the executive level was revealed in an emotional statement he made on Wednesday afternoon.
‘Leading the Carlton Football Club has been one of the great honours and privileges of my life,’ he said.
‘I leave knowing the club is in great shape, and with my deepest gratitude for its understanding and support.
‘I deeply regret that other people including my family, friends and colleagues and football club have been caught up in this matter.’
The AFL made the ruling after the league’s Integrity Unit concluded its investigation, which began last week, noting that Sayers and the Carlton club had assisted with its inquiries.
Luke Sayers (pictured) announced he has stepped down as Carlton president on Wednesday afternoon, just minutes after he was cleared by the AFL after its investigation into a graphic sexual image being sent from his X account
The AFL found that the offending image was sent by an unknown person who ‘compromised’ Sayers’ social media account
The now ex-club president (pictured with wife Cate) strenuously denied any wrongdoing and insisted his account had been hacked
‘The integrity unit’s inquiries, which included multiple interviews and review of other evidence, have now concluded and the AFL has found, based on the available evidence, that access to Mr Sayers’ X account was compromised, resulting in the posting of the image (i.e. by a person not being Mr Sayers) and tagging of another person,’ the league said in a statement.
‘Accordingly, the AFL has determined that Mr Sayers did not breach AFL rules in connection with the posting of the image.
‘Once he was made aware of the post, Mr Sayers immediately acted to have the image removed and to shut down his X account.
‘The AFL wishes to thank the executive who was unwittingly tagged in the post, her cooperation and assistance throughout the inquiries have been extremely helpful.’
The former PWC chief executive’s X account posted an image of a mystery man’s penis, and tagged the account of a top female management figure with a company linked to Carlton at 5.41pm on January 9.
The public post was directed at the executive’s social media account, although the mother-of-two does not appear to have used X since 2017 and does not follow Mr Sayers on the platform.
Sayers noticed the development after the photo had been online for 12 minutes, at which point he hastily deleted the image and apologised to his followers, claiming he had been targeted by cyber criminals.
‘Sorry, my account has been hacked – please ignore all posts,’ he wrote.
The married father-of-four’s account, which had more than 7,300 followers, was deleted but the post had already been reposted and screen-grabbed by other X users.
He told Daily Mail Australia he was ‘outraged’ by the alleged attack when the news first broke.
‘This is outrageous. I’m investigating and will leave no stone unturned finding out who did this to me and my family,’ he said.
More to come…
