28 March 2008

Carey opens up in television interview

Disgraced AFL star Wayne Carey never "intentionally" struck his girlfriend, he told ABC's Andrew Denton in a confessional TV interview.

Denton said it was one of the hardest interviews he's done: "Normally there's light and shade, difficult things and good things, but this was all difficult."

"When I asked him about being aggressive toward women, he was surprised he'd be seen that way," Denton said.

Carey allegedly smashed a wine glass over girlfriend Kate Neilson's face in a Miami hotel last October.

Nor was the former AFL great sorry for indecently assaulting a woman outside a Melbourne nightclub in 1995, telling Denton the press conference in which apologised was forced on Carey by his football club and that his words were insincere.

But Carey said in the interview he is too ashamed of his behaviour to go out in public.

Carey, 36, also admitted to binge drinking and using cocaine in an interview with Andrew Denton, to air.

Denton described Carey as "articulate, polite and almost charming" throughout the two-hour interview, in which he opened up about how he has been spending his time.

"He has been too embarrassed to go outside for the past eight weeks and has been hiding from house to house because he's so ashamed of what he's done," Denton has told News Ltd.

"We forensically went though everything on the record about him since 1995, all the incidents he has been involved in.

"We also talked to his family members, his older brother Dick and older sister Karen, who were there to piece together how he went from being the king to where he is today," Denton said about the interview to be aired on ABC's Enough Rope on Monday night.

Carey is expected to be charged over lashing out at police during a domestic dispute at his Port Melbourne penthouse on January 27.

The former Melbourne premiership captain is already facing criminal charges for assaulting police in the US state of Florida, which happened after he allegedly smashed a wine glass over his girlfriend.

The revelations about Carey's behaviour have resulted in him losing various lucrative jobs in the football media.

Carey also said he resorted to binge drinking during his AFL career and began using cocaine after football "because it enabled him to drink longer," Denton said.

But Carey "flatly denied" receiving an estimated $180,000 for a recent New Idea interview in which he revealed his addiction to cocaine.

Denton said the denial "seemed unbelievable" thought Carey was evasive in other parts of the interview.

"I think he came really wanting to be candid but left not being as candid as he wanted to be," Denton told Fairfax.

Carey also denied he had been paid for a New Idea interview that he and his girlfriend gave, in which he admitted to having a cocaine problem, Fairfax reported.

Carey will appear in court in Miami next month on two felony charges of aggravated battery of a police officer and a charge of resisting arrest with violence.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in an American jail.

ninemsn 28 March 2008

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