A Sydney radio host who asked listeners to answer a trivial question about alleged murder victim Charlise Mutten has been dismissed from his job.
A Sydney radio broadcaster is “devastated” after being fired for asking listeners to answer a trivial question about alleged murder victim Charlise Mutten last month.
Marcus Paul was blasted after asking listeners on his breakfast radio segment with 2SM to name the suburb where the nine-year-old went missing.
Police have charged Mutten’s stepfather Justin Stein with her murder after she went missing in the NSW Blue Mountains. Her remains were found in a barrel dumped on the banks of the Colo River after a five-day search.
“The beautiful young girl who was allegedly tragically murdered this week, Charlise Mutten, went to school in which NSW suburb,” Paul asked a listener.
“Can’t remember the name, do you want to have a guess, time’s ticking,” he added as the listener struggled to come up with an answer.
“Give us a call if you happen to have the answer to that question … if you get it correct, you get the goodies.”
After a number of guesses from other listeners, one caller answered the question correctly.
“Mate, thank you for playing and well done to you,” Paul said.
On Friday, Paul admitted he “shouldn’t” have included the question in the quiz.
“Well I did ask what school she went to, but you’ve got to remember the quiz is about the day’s news and the question specifically related to where the vigil for her was held.
“Maybe in hindsight, I shouldn’t have included the question … and yeah, lesson learnt from me, I just wanted to clear that up.”
The Daily Telegraph today reports 2SM has let him go after an internal investigation into the segment was concluded.
He told the Telegraph: “I am devastated. All I can say is that I do apologise for the segment and if I had my time again and more resources and maybe a bit more help, it wouldn’t have happened.
“But there is no excuse, it happened and you have to be philosophical about these things and I will hopefully be able to move on and I wish them well.”
The “insensitive” segment was last month slammed by the father of Daniel Morcombe — a teenager who was abducted and murdered in Queensland in 2003.
“His comments are totally insensitive, he needs to take a good look at himself,” Bruce Morcombe told the Telegraph.
“We lost Daniel 18 years ago, and honestly I take (the incident) personally, he’s elected to trivialise something which is a horrendous act … it’s disgraceful,” Mr Morcombe said.
“An on-air apology is needed and I think he needs to spend some time volunteering at a victims’ advocacy organisation to try and understand the depth of what he has said and the lifelong impact things like homicide have on the families of victims.”
Detectives will allege in court Stein had driven to Sydney with Charlise’s body in the back of his boat, with police believing he had tried to launch it from an inner-Sydney dock. Authorities found her body inside a barrel, 76km from Sydney.
While the schoolgirl normally lived with her grandmother in Coolangatta, Queensland, she was spending two weeks with her mother during the school holidays.
Originally published as Radio broadcaster Marcus Paul axed over ‘disgraceful’ Charlise quiz
For all the latest Entertainment News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
