Chris Gayle’s attorney Bruce McClintock SC went on the offensive and described massage therapist Leanne Russell as “plainly neurotic” in his closing address to the jury at the defamation trial in Sydney.

Gayle is suing Fairfax Media over a series of articles published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times which claimed Gayle pulled down a towel partially exposing his penis to Russell in the change room at Drummoyne Oval during a training session for the 2015 World Cup.

According McClintock the case was “not about sexual harassment”.

“It’s about whether a specific incident involving three people occurred on February 11, 2015. Two of the people said it didn’t, one person said it did.”

McClintock zeroed in on Russell’s discrepancy in her evidence that she was looking for a sandwich but told Gayle she was after a towel.

Russell, who gave evidence on Wednesday, had explained to the court that she had anorexia and it was a “kneejerk” reaction to avoid talking about food.

McClintock however noted Russell’s mental illness to the jury describing her as “mentally fragile”, “plainly neurotic” and “bitter and vengeful”.

The trial heard Russell went public with her allegations the following year after seeing Gayle’s infamous side-line interview with sports journalist Mel McLaughlin when he told her “don’t blush baby”.

Russell told the court the alleged incident, which took place in the presence of Gayle’s teammate Dwayne Smith, left her “crying uncontrollably”.

“I saw the top half of Chris’ penis, I apologise, and I thereafter shielded my view,” Russell said.

Fairfax Media is defending the articles on two bases, including that the reports are true.

McClintock in his closing address told the jury on that Fairfax editors and journalists “weren’t interested in the truth”.

“They wanted to damage my client’s reputation and they certainly achieved that,” he said.

The four-person jury of three women and one man are expected to retire on Monday to deliberate.