Sportscaster awarded $80m over naked video

Erin Andrews. Photo Reuters
Erin Andrews. Photo Reuters
A jury has awarded US sportscaster Erin Andrews $US55 million ($NZ80.9m) in her lawsuit over a secretly recorded nude video that a stalker took of her in a hotel room and posted online.

The jury came back with its decision on Monday (local time) after about a day of deliberations.

Andrews works for Fox Sports and co-hosts TV's "Dancing with the Stars." She maintained that the stalker and two hotel companies were to blame for the video. She tearfully testified that she was publicly humiliated, shamed and suffers from depression as a result of the videos, which have been viewed by millions of people.

Attorneys for the owner and former operator of the Marriott at Vanderbilt argued that while what happened to Andrews was terrible, the convicted stalker, Michael David Barrett, should be solely to blame for the video shot in 2008.

Barrett admitted to altering hotel room peepholes in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio, and taking nude videos of Andrews and posting them online. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

On Friday, a judge found Barrett at fault. The former insurance executive never showed up for trial.

Barrett pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews in all three cities, and taking nude videos of her and posting them online. He spent 20 months in prison.

Barrett was a Chicago-area insurance company executive when he took the videos of Andrews at the Nashville hotel in September 2008.

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