Aussie expat producer named in historic US sexual misconduct allegations

Former Nine and ABC producer David Hill, the man credited with producing World Series Cricket for Kerry Packer, is at the centre of a US report about sexual misconduct in the late 1990s.

The Wrap reports 21st Century FOX paid off a woman who accused Hill of sexual misconduct while he was chairman of FOX Sports (US).

It alleges the payment happened in 1998, and suggests FOX, long before the investigations that led to the exits of Bill O’Reilly and founder Roger Ailes more recently.

Hill, who co-produced last year’s Academy Awards, had a 24-year career with FOX that ended in 2015.

The woman alleged sexually aggressive behaviour by Hill and accepted a settlement in exchange for not pursuing a lawsuit.

“That’s the earliest recorded FOX case I’ve heard about,” attorney Lisa Bloom, who has filed several sexual harassment suits against FOX, said of the 1998 case. “If they’d cleaned house then, or simply monitored their staff to require compliance with the law, so many women could have been spared.”

Last year Hill  was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award at the New York Festival.

FOX declined to comment.