A bombshell legal challenge by the son of AFL great Sam Newman against an NBA star has poured dirt on the ‘rotten culture’ of one of Australia’s most elite private schools.
Max Jones, 25, is suing Geelong Grammar for negligence over the alleged incident involving Australian NBA star Jock Landale.
In a Supreme Court of Victoria writ obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Landale is accused of literally dancing on Jones while the pair were boarding at the elite school in 2013.
Max Jones (left) alongside his famous father Sam Newman
Phoenix Suns’ Jock Landale has been accused of using Max Jones like a dance floor while they were at school
Max Jones (right) claims he was used like a dance floor during a savage attack while boarding at Geelong Grammar
While Geelong Grammar has long promoted ‘instilling the values of courage, compassion and curiosity’, Mr Jones has accused the school of ‘failing to institute a culture at the school that prevented the abuse of students by fellow students’.
Geelong Grammar is among Australia’s most exclusive private schools where fees cost $40,000 a year. The then Prince Charles, now King Charles III, attended the school for six months in 1966.
Mr Jones alleges Landale – who is now engaged to the niece of TV presenter Rebecca Maddern – forced him to the ground and attacked him while they were both housed in the school’s Manifold Boys’ Boarding House.
The prestigious quarters are one of three foundation houses at Geelong Grammar, along with Cuthbertson and Perry houses.
Court documents state Mr Jones was in year 10 while Landale was in year 12 when the older boy allegedly struck.
Mr Jones claims he had been sitting quietly watching television in the common room within Manifold when Landale and his mate entered armed with a portable speaker.
With the music pumping, Mr Jones alleged Landale placed the speaker on a nearby table before picking him up by his shoulders and slamming him to the ground.
What happened next left Mr Jones with life changing injuries, he claimed.
The court has been told Landale stood on Mr Jones’ lower stomach and ‘repeatedly jumped on (him) to the beat of the song’.
Basketball star Jock Landale (pictured with fiancée Indi Maddern) is being sued by Max Jones over an alleged incident at Geelong Grammar in 2013
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (left) and Jock Landale (right) react after a blocked shot in the second half against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on March 22. Landale is accused of being a school bully
Mr Jones claimed Landale was free to assault him because the school failed to protect him.
‘(Geelong Grammar) owed a non-delegable duty of care to (Mr Jones) to exercise such care for the safety of (him) as a careful parent would take of his or her own children,’ his lawyers submitted in a statement of claim.
While Mr Jones admitted to suffering some back pain before the alleged incident, he claimed the attack was to blame for what has become life long suffering.
‘Following the incident (Mr Jones) was winded and in pain. He had previous back pain which was made significantly worse by the incident,’ his lawyers stated.
Mr Jones claimed he was taken to Cabrini Hospital for his injuries the very next day.
‘While in immense physical pain, (Mr Jones) … ultimately underwent L4/L5 laminectomy surgery on February 8, 2013,’ the court was told.
‘(He) continues to experience back pain, including occasional leg weakness as a result of the injuries arising from the incident.’
Max Jones, the youngest son of Sam Newman (pictured), is suing his former school
Mr Jones is suing both Geelong and Landale, 27, for loss of past and future earnings and medical expenses, and enlisted legal firm Arnold Thomas and Becker to represent him.
‘The incident constituted a battery at common law for which the second defendant (Landale) is directly liable’, the writ stated.
‘As a result of the incident and the injuries caused by the incident, the plaintiff’s ability to concentrate and the study was prejudiced.’
Geelong Grammar has denied the allegations and claimed Mr Jones did not report any assault at the time.
Landale has also denied the alleged assault and other allegations made against him by Mr Jones.
Lawyers for the school, Landale and Mr Jones have all declined to comment further with the matter currently before the courts.
The allegations are the latest in a growing list of complaints aimed at the school by former students.
In 2019, a female student alleged she was sexually assaulted in a study room by a male student at the school.
The young woman, who was supported by a cohort of her fellow Geelong Grammar students at the time, slammed the school’s response to her complaint as ‘disgusting’.
Max Jones claims the alleged assault occurred at Geelong Grammar (pictured) in 2013
Cameron Rahles-Rahbula was fined $5000 in March after a magistrate found him guilty of using his mobile phone to film a topless student without her consent at Geelong Grammar School in 2021.
The 18-year-old female alleged the boy forced her to perform oral sex on him in a private study room at the school’s Corio campus.
In 2017 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse heard from 13 former students, who outlined shocking details of abuse which was rife at the school between 1956 and 1989.
In 2018, an abuse survivor from Geelong Grammar was awarded $1.1 million in compensation, despite having previously settled for a nominal amount, after it was revealed that the school had acted in bad faith during previous settlement negotiations by failing to disclose that it had knowledge that the perpetrator was a paedophile.
This month, Paralympian and former Young Victorian of the Year Cameron Rahles-Rahbula avoided a criminal conviction after secretly filming a semi-naked teenage girl as he performed physiotherapy on her at the school.
At the time of the offending, Rahles-Rahbula was employed as a physiotherapist at the Corio Bay Medical Group, which was contracted to provide on-site treatments to Geelong Grammar students.
In 2021, the victim attended an appointment with Rahles-Rahbula to receive treatment to her neck and back at school.
During the treatment, the minor said she noticed a mobile phone appeared to have been strategically placed near her as she lay partly undressed on the treatment table.
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