On October 29, 2018, Cricket Australia handed down the findings of its own cultural review which found the organisation to be “arrogant and controlling.”It was meant to be a line in the sand moment for Australia’s most powerful sport.An acknowledgment of previous errors, an acceptance that they needed to change and a way for the game to finally move forward after the infamous Sandpapergate scandal that had rocked the sport.But we now know, at that very moment, it was little more than a window-dressing sham.On Thursday June 1, 2023, former Cricket Australia communications boss Tim Whittaker was found guilty in Melbourne Magistrates court of sexually assaulting junior Cricket Australia employee Reuben Williams following an alcohol-fuelled staff party in March 2019.What wasn’t detailed in court, but can be revealed by The Saturday Telegraph in full detail now, is that Cricket Australia investigated other claims concerning Whittaker’s predatory behaviour and abuse of alcohol issues at the exact time the Cultural Review was being handed down.This followed allegations concerning an incident which occurred on an Australian cricket tour in the UAE in October 2018.An incident which now poses the inescapable question Cricket Australia must confront:Did the organisation fail to take adequate steps that could have prevented Reuben Williams from being exposed to Whittaker’s predatory behaviour in March 2019?In October 2018, just five months prior to one of the two sexual assaults Whittaker was this week found guilty of committing, a different staffer claims he had his genitals grabbed by Whittaker at a hotel bar in Abu Dhabi.He went back to Whittaker’s hotel room for more drinks and claims he was later invited to lay on the bed before he abruptly left the room.The staffer said he reported the matter to Cricket Australia at the time, but after an investigation CA only ordered Whittaker to deliver the victim a formal apology.“My reason for reporting this matter to Cricket Australia at the time was to prevent another employee feeling like they were taken advantage of and that if this behaviour was repeated by Tim Whittaker then Cricket Australia would have it recorded,” the man said in a statement provided to this masthead.This cuts to the core of why a profound level of soul searching must now take place within the halls of Cricket Australia.HOW CRICKET AUSTRALIA HANDLED SHOCKING ABU DHABI CLAIMSWhittaker was found guilty in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on Thursday over two separate allegations of sexual assault, one from 2016 and one from 2019, from two different men involved in cricket, not known to each other, who said they woke from an intoxicated night of sleep to Whittaker masturbating them.Evidence given by two friends of Williams, the March 2019 victim who met their mate for breakfast just hours after he had been assaulted in Whittaker’s Richmond apartment following the CA staff party, was telling.They gave evidence that their friend presented as “visibly upset” and “visibly distressed” when he sat down for breakfast that morning.As a reporter covering the 2018 Abu Dhabi tour, I could relate to this description, because I saw it so clearly in the demeanour of my friend, the young CA staffer, the morning after he had spent a night in Whittaker’s company at the Abu Dhabi hotel in October 2018.It’s evidence I and other journalists on the tour would have been able to provide Cricket Australia’s investigators had they ever called as part of the in-house investigation into Whittaker’s behaviour on that tour.The only phone call I received was from a Cricket Australia executive weeks later, after the investigation had been completed.The executive said Whittaker had been spoken to about how inappropriate his excessive alcohol purchasing and consumption was for a person in his position.The executive said Whittaker had been ordered to apologise to the young employee for his unprofessional behaviour and had been put on leave for a couple of weeks before the home summer of cricket commenced.In my view the CA executive was attempting to minimalize what had happened and was overlooking the power imbalance that was at play.However, I also blame myself. I did not push back on the senior CA executive in the conversation when I had the chance; and it is something I have regretted ever since, and particularly now.I know of one other journalist who also received an unprompted call from a different CA executive, also attempting to minimalize the encounter between Whittaker and the junior staffer.The phone calls were each received not months, but just weeks after CA delivered their infamous cultural review findings.When Whittaker returned to work, Cricket Australia didn’t put any measures in place to separate him from the young staffer in the workplace, and the young staffer felt uncomfortable when Whittaker engaged him in conversation when they bumped into each other at Adelaide Oval before a Test match in December 2018.While the Abu Dhabi claims were never the subject of criminal charges, did CA’s failure to act strongly on Whittaker months earlier come back to haunt the organisation and impact the life of another young employee?INSIDE THE 2019 CA STAFF PARTY March 15, 2019 and Cricket Australia is holding its annual end of year staff party at Half Acre bar in South Melbourne.It doubled as Whittaker’s farewell from Cricket Australia as he’d just accepted a new job as a Communications manager for the International Cricket Council in Dubai.In the words of Whittaker in his police interview, the function was, “like most CA events, highly fuelled on alcohol.”Multiple witnesses have confirmed that at the Half Acre party, a senior CA executive gave a rousing speech in honour of the departing Whittaker, lauding him as the ultimate employee for epitomising CA’s work hard, play hard ethos.Those in the room familiar with the claims relating to the Abu Dhabi incident were appalled at the hero worship rhetoric.According to Whittaker’s evidence at trial, about half the staff, including Cricket Australia’s then CEO Kevin Roberts, then kicked on from Half Acre to an after party at The Exchange Hotel in Port Melbourne where things got so boozy that CA’s security manager got into a punch up with another employee.The previous year, a staff member exited CA following an undisclosed incident at the corresponding end of season party.At The Exchange Hotel after-party, Whittaker conceded in evidence it was likely he bought colleagues, including the man he was to later sexually assault at his apartment, a “Fireball shot” of alcohol.After 2am a small group of CA employees then went back to Whittaker’s apartment in Richmond for more drinking.On the Monday after the raucous night out, Williams, the young man sexually assaulted by Whittaker made a complaint to Cricket Australia’s People and Culture department that he felt Whittaker “seemed to be particularly plying him with drinks” back at his apartment. Although this specific claim was not necessarily supported by other witnesses on the night.Hours later, at about 5am, when all other staff members had finally left Whittaker’s apartment, the sleeping young employee woke to Whittaker masturbating his penis.‘BELIEVE SURVIVORS’: REUBEN WILLIAMS’ POWERFUL STATEMENT The victim, Reuben Williams, bravely spoke about his four-year ordeal via a post to LinkedIn on Thursday night as he finally received closure for an incident stemming from the work party.“4 years ago I woke up to being sexually assaulted by a male colleague after a staff party,” he wrote.“Today, he was finally found guilty. I can’t explain how relieved I feel right now. 2019 was comfortably the worst year of my life, I had my power taken away that night, and I’ve fought 4 years to get it back.“4 years of investigations, hearings, delays, trauma and therapy. A (f***ing) lot of therapy.“But when I finally got my chance to take the stand and tell my story to the Magistrate, I’d never felt so empowered in my life.“Given the process, given the conviction rates, I find it hard to fathom this day has come. I’m so incredibly relieved I can move on. But unfortunately, I’m one of the lucky ones, this legal system makes it hard for people to speak up.“4 years to get a result, something has to change. Believe survivors.”‘I RECALL TIM INVITED ME TO LAY ON THE BED’ The question to be pondered today is would Williams have been a victim at all if Cricket Australia had acted more appropriately with the Abu Dhabi claims and more thoroughly investigated them?These incidents involving the young employees seem to share unnervingly similar patterns, albeit with a very different outcome.“At approximately 10.30pm Tim arrived at the (Abu Dhabi) restaurant alone and joined us. He offered to buy a beer for me, which I accepted. Tim ordered two beers and two shots of vodka for both he and I,” the young employee said in his statement on the 2018 incident.“Over the next hour I drank another three shots of vodka and an unknown quantity of beer, all of which was purchased by Tim.“Tim didn’t only buy drinks for me, he also offered drinks to others at the table.“(After the others left, leaving Tim and I at the table by ourselves) Tim left the table but returned shortly after with another shot of alcohol each for both us.“Whilst at the Cho Gao Restaurant Tim leaned over and touched me on the penis over my shorts. It was like a grabbing motion. Tim was laughing when he did this, and I squirmed around trying to negate Tim touching my penis.“I’m not a confrontational person and did not confront Tim about grabbing my penis.“I was unsure at the time what to believe about Tim touching me on the penis and could not think of a rational reason for him doing it.“At no time did I give Tim Whittaker permission to touch me on the penis.“I cannot recall the amount of alcohol I had consumed. We remained at the restaurant together until it closed around 2.00am at which time, we walked to Belgian Beer Café however it was closed. We both walked together to Tim’s room where I sat in a chair in the room and Tim called room service to order two more shots of tequila.“I recall Tim invited me to lay on the bed. I laid on the bed briefly however I got an urge to leave and I ‘high-tailed it out of there.’ I had felt a little uncomfortable and that it was strange being in the bed with him.”The young employee says he is “not a confrontational person”, yet still made the brave call to report the matter to Cricket Australia, motivated “to prevent another employee feeling like they were taken advantage of.”Even if CA were justified in deeming the incident in Abu Dhabi was not a sackable offence, it did declare his drinking, buying of drinks and general behaviour around younger co-workers was completely inappropriate.On that level, what did CA do to stop this behaviour?During the Australia versus Sri Lanka Test match in Canberra in early February 2019, Whittaker didn’t turn up at the ground until the afternoon the next day after a late night out with colleagues, although he claimed this was due to food poisoning.Whittaker’s defence team told the Court on Thursday that Whittaker has recognised he had issues with alcohol abuse and has taken steps to address them.An email sent by a CA executive to all staff a couple of days prior to the Sri Lanka Test in Canberra on January 31 advising that Whittaker had won a job at the ICC, and praising him for “always keeping a watchful eye on the health and wellbeing of his colleagues” did not age well.“Tim’s passion for his role and deep belief in what cricket represents and its value to Australia is evident in all that he does and we wish him the very best in his next challenge at the ICC,” the email read.“We look forward to farewelling Tim appropriately before he finishes up with us on Friday 15 March.”Sadly, there was nothing appropriate about the farewell.‘GREATLY DISTURBED’: CA INSISTS ITS CULTURE HAS CHANGED Under the leadership of current chief executive Nick Hockley (who was not at CA at the time of these incidents) multiple current employees of Cricket Australia told the masthead the organisation’s culture has shifted markedly from these regrettable days.Cricket Australia has offered strong support for all three men from the 2016, 2018 and 2019 incidents throughout the drawn out court process.“We are not only greatly disturbed that these crimes were committed by a former CA employee, but also the details of the case, including that one of the offences occurred after a staff function,” CA said in a statement to this masthead.“As an organisation, we continually strive to create a safe, harmonious and productive workplace for all our employees.“We are extremely confident that our current workplace culture, including regular training, the respect our staff have for each other and the expectations outlined in our Respect@Work policies, fully addresses this requirement.”As Reuben Williams put it in his brave statement: “Believe survivors.”