The woman accused of defaming her lothario ex-lover of being a sex-addict has branded him a liar and stormed out of court.
Selina Holder could no longer contain her disgust for IT tech guru Constantine Arvanitis, who has been under cross examination for five days in their County Court of Victoria defamation trial.
‘That’s a lie. You’re a pathological liar,’ she exclaimed from a position seated behind her barrister Barrie Goldsmith.
Selina Holder is defending allegations she defamed her former partner
Selina Holder attends the County Court of Victoria on Monday. She is defending claims she has defamed her ex-partner by calling him a sex addict
Constantine Arvanitis and Melanie Thornton leave the County Court of Victoria. Mr Arvanitis claims he has been the target of a savage attack to destroy his reputation
‘Sorry, I’m leaving.’
The incident followed a claim by Mr Arvanitis that Ms Holder had embarked upon a mission to destroy his relationship with his latest girlfriend Melanie Thornton – the sister of respected cancer surgeon Dr Chantel Thornton.
Throughout Wednesday morning, Mr Arvanitis denied he had maintained a sexual relationship with Ms Holder while sleeping around with anywhere up to half-a-dozen other women.
Mr Arvanitis, 48, has been accused of being a sex addict by Ms Holder in a messy defamation hearing that has played out for more than a week.
As the hearing descended into something resembling a school yard fracas, Ms Holder continued to disrupt the court upon her return.
Again she branded Mr Arvanitis a liar after he denied from the witness box that he had once spiked her drink with methamphetamine – the deadly drug known commonly as ice.
Mr Arvanitis had been a rampant drug addict when he met Ms Holder in 2012 but was allegedly clean in 2013 when he is accused of slipping his then girlfriend a ‘mickey’.
‘That’s a lie. You’re a liar,’ Ms Holder said again from her seat – causing Judge Julie Clayton to sanction the irate ex.
Ms Holder alleges he was having sex with at least two other women – and her – and possibly more during the same period.
Constantine Arvanitis has been accused of bedding multiple women and being a sex addict
Selina Holder (left) Melanie Thornton (centre) have all become embroiled in a messy court case in Melbourne
Selina Holder had been all smiles upon leaving court when the trial began. On Wednesday she could hardly contain her rage for her ex-partner
The court heard a series of raunchy text exchanges between Mr Arvanitis and Ms Holder during the period he was ‘hooking up’ with sex partners he had met on Tinder.
The couple had already broken up and Ms Holder had moved to her home town of Sydney with their young daughter.
Mr Arvanitis denied continuing a sexual relationship with Ms Holder and claimed the text messages – some of which contained references to the ‘morning after pill’ and ‘getting pregnant’ – were a form of long-distance role playing.
The defamation case was brought on by Mr Arvanitis over allegations Ms Holder passed on documents to Ms Thornton and her sister claiming he was, among other things, a violent sex addict.
Two other women, Sydney woman Suzanne Stretton-Brown and Melbourne woman Michelle Langford, had been hit with similar legal action by Mr Arvanitis before they offered a full apology.
Mr Arvanitis admitted he had been having unprotected sex with the two women while dating his current fiance Ms Thornton.
On Wednesday, Mr Arvanitis further claimed Ms Holder was responsible for an unsigned death threat that was sent to Ms Thornton in 2019.
The letter branded Ms Thornton a ‘plastic whore, slut and bitch’.
‘Die Barbie,’ it read. ‘We are going to get you.’
The court had previously heard ‘Barbie’ was a derogatory term Ms Holder had used to describe Ms Thornton.
‘It came from Selina,’ Mr Arvanitis told the court. ‘Plastic, whore, Barbie – only one person called Melanie that and it was Selina.’
Selina Holder walks from a Melbourne court. On Wednesday, the court heard she had sent some horrendous text messages to her ex-partner
Con Arvanitis claims messages sent by Ms Holder to him such as ‘I will take the morning after pill’ and ‘You will have a baby if I don’t get my period’ were role playing games
Next week, a series of Mr Arvanitis’ ex-girlfriends will enter the witness box and provide evidence for the defence.
Mr Arvanitis has told the court the women were all simply ‘hook-ups’ that he had met on the dating app Tinder under the full intention of having meaningless sex.
Again Mr Arvanitis claimed the jilted women – now numbering five – were conspiring to destroy him.
One Adelaide women had since moved to Melbourne and was now ‘stalking’ Mr Arvanitis, he claimed.
‘She’s very unhinged … I believe she’s trying to hurt me,’ he said.
Like Ms Holder, Mr Arvanitis claimed he had engaged in similar ‘story telling’ sex messages with the woman.
The court heard Ms Stretton-Brown said she now felt ‘sickened’ about having unprotected sex with Mr Arvanitis at the time.
‘He lied to me for eight months,’ she claimed in an email read to the court.
Mr Arvanitis refuted he was not a man of integrity for failing to disclose he was having sex with others he had met on Tinder.
‘She was living in Sydney, I was living in Melbourne,’ he said of his relationship with Ms Stretton-Brown.
‘It was crazy to think anything could happen … it was a hook-up. I met her on Tinder.’
The civil trial continues.
Dr Chantel Thornton is married to luxury car dealer Srecko Lorbek. She is expected to give evidence next week
Dr Chantel Thornton allegedly received some damning information about Con Arvanitis and shared it with her husband
Dr Chantel Thornton (left) and her sister Melanie Thornton. Constantine Arvanitis claims he was banished by the Thornton clan after they read a damning document supposedly about him