Former model and actor Tziporah Malkah has made an official complaint to police after it emerged during Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial a topless photograph of her was distributed by ex-Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach without her consent.
Ms Malkah, formerly the fashion model, actor and television personality known as Kate Fischer, has previously revealed she was “at her lowest ebb” when she spent Christmas Eve in 2019 in the company of journalists Steve Jackson and Auerbach.
She previously rose to fame as a 14-year old cover girl of Dolly when she won a modelling competition when Lisa Wilkinson was editing the magazine.
She then left the celebrity world to “find herself” and ended up converting to Judaism, adopting the name T’ziporah Malka.
Ex-Spotlight producer Steve Jackson was recently at the centre of a political storm after he was appointed the NSW police commissioner’s media minder only to have the contract rescinded after the “distraction” of multiple media reports about his colourful past, including that he had interviewed the ex-model while she was topless.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Jackson or that he knew the photographs were taken by the third man.
Her decision to contact law enforcement over the photographs follows evidence given by Auerbach during the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case hearing last week in which he admitted distributing photos.
“I am deeply concerned to have been dragged into the ongoing Bruce Lehrmann court case,” Ms Malkah told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Put simply, I have nothing whatsoever to do with Bruce Lehrmann, those court cases, Thai prostitutes or bags of cocaine.
“These photographs have been sensationalised and have been variously described as nude and naked — they are not completely either: I was topless.
“My being topless at home should hardly come as a shock to anyone, as there was a previous news story, where a policeman came to my door, and he asked me to put a top on – in my own home.
“Just because that’s my attitude, it doesn’t mean that anyone can take pictures of my breasts or me.
“In this particular case, an individual with whom I was once vaguely acquainted, has decided to use images of me in his personal vendetta against a former male friend and colleague of his. This is completely unacceptable.
“I believed that it was my duty to immediately report this activity to the police.
During the interview for The Australian newspaper’s then-reporter Steve Jackson, that was conducted when she was topless and drinking, she revealed she was raped by a powerful Hollywood producer and is a survivor of sexual assault.
“It’s a strange thing for me, sex,” she says. “Because from an early age I was abused.
“For years I wished I was normal. Every girl wanted to be me but I wanted to be every girl.
“The modelling and everything else was fine. But every man I met wanted me to be their claim to fame. I’ve f**ked over 100 of them but they all wanted to have sex with Kate Fischer, not with me; they want to have sex with an icon. It’s disgusting. But it’s the fact that I let men rape me and enjoyed it, that’s what has hurt my soul the most.
“I was a powerless little girl and I hated myself. I was ashamed. I used to slap myself: ‘You stupid f**king idiot, how could you be so revolting’.”
She told Steve Jackson that she was seriously sexually assaulted, including at the hands of a well-known movie executive who remains powerful in Hollywood to this day, when she was just 16.
“I don’t blame anyone for anything that has happened to me,” she says. “I have survived it. Actually, I hate the word ‘survived’. I’m actually a winner. I have won.”
The Sunday Telegraph reported on Friday that they were given a copy of the images that had been allegedly given to media outlets in March this year.
The newspaper reported that the investigation will now be handed over to Kings Cross detectives.
“The experience is deeply personal, hurtful, frightening and degrading. I am very angry and hurt that I was made an unwilling accomplice to a man’s vindictive, spiteful vendetta against an erstwhile friend of his,’’ Malkah said.
“I am simply one of the latest in a very long line of women who are paying the price for society’s failure to treat women seriously.”
According to Malkah the group consumed a number of drinks they went to her Elizabeth Bay home, where they kept drinking.
A few days later, on December 26, 2019, Malkah met with Jackson and a professional photographer, and photos were taken for a newspaper article published the following day.
Jackson — who is not accused of any wrongdoing — is pictured in the images, which were taken by another person.
Taylor Auerbach has been contacted for comment.
Mr Lehrmann’s barrister Matthew Richardson asked Auerbach in the Federal Court this week if he had been involved in the distribution of semi-naked photographs of a woman sitting on a couch with Jackson.
“Is that true?’’ the barrister asked. “Yes, sir,’’ Auerbach replied.
The barrister then put to Auerbach: “So you sent those photographs to media organisations didn’t you?
“You did not obtain the consent of the woman in question to do this. Did you know you were aware that it was a criminal act to send photographs … to third parties without consent?
“No,’’ Auerbach replied.