Martin Freeman in The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey.

Ivory Coast pair freedFORMER Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and co-defendant Charles Ble Goude have been freed from detention by the International Criminal Court.

The men were acquittedof atrocities charges on January 15 but had been kept in detention pending an appeal. Mr Gbagbo has spent seven years in custody in The Hague in the Netherlands.

AN a-maze-ing regional Victorian tourist attraction is searching for a new owner.

Tracey and Dean Shipley (right) are turning over a new leaf and looking to sell the hedge maze they spent 15 years growing from saplings.

A topiary garden and their familyhome next door are also part of the package, 15 minutes from Mansfield in Goughs Bay, which has a $750,000asking price.

Ms Shipley used her skills as a former hairdresser to shape the gardens and said they grew the labyrinth — now known as the High Country Maze — “from scratch, a bare paddock”.

Much like navigating the maze, it was no small task.

“It’s a bit of an art, but not one you can’t learn,” Mrs Shipley said.

Mr Shipley, a real estate agent and director at Harcourts Mansfield, is handling inquiries for the property at 678 Piries Goughs Bay Rd.

Pictures: JAKE NOWAKOWSKI

A home to get lost in

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Door opens into world of TolkienILLUSTRATIONS, maps andother items related to thebooks The Hobbit, The Silmaril-lion and The Lord of the Ringsare on display in New Yorkuntil mid-May, part of an eventbilled as the most extensive ex-hibition of original material byfamed English author andscholar J.R.R. Tolkien.

Besides writing those works,Tolkien (1892-1973) also pro-duced drawings, manuscripts,maps and other designs that

reveal his vision for a worldpopulated by hobbits, elves,orcs, dwarves and other fan-tastical creatures.

Visitors enter the exhibitthrough a round door that re-sembles the front of a dwellingin Hobbiton, the home villageof Bilbo and Frodo Baggins —the main protagonists of TheHobbit, a children’s fantasynovel, and The Lord of theRings, a three-volume epicnovel, respectively.

The exhibit contains 117 ob-jects, including letters, draftmanuscripts, illustrations andphotographs that give aglimpse into the mind behindMiddle-earth in all his facets:as father, husband and author.

The exhibit’s numerousmanuscripts and letters alsoprovide greater insight intoTolkien’s craft as a writer,showing the process he under-went in striving to create aBritish mythology.

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PAGES 52-54

Breakdown at the office A FORMER worker at Hertz is suingthe car-hire firm after she claimed shewas sexually harassed and called a“slut” by a colleague.

After joining Hertz as a reserva-tions agent in 2010, the woman wasbased at the company’s head office inSt Kilda Rd for six years before shemoved to the Melbourne Airportbranch to work as a customer servicerepresentative.

The woman claims she was sexual-ly harassed and groped between Apriland July 2016. Law firm Arnold Thom-as and Becker has launched legalaction in the Federal Circuit Court ofAustralia on behalf of the woman.

annual leave and did not return towork. She claims she suffered depres-sion, anxiety and a loss of confidencefollowing the alleged harassment.

Lawyer Maria Civisic, who is repre-senting the woman, told the SundayHerald Sun: “There has been a rise inconcern about sexual harassmentdriven by the #MeToo movement andthe incline of people to say that havebeen affected.

“My client alleges that the conductof Hertz was inadequate in the hand-ling and investigation of her com-plaints – and was made to feel that shewas in the wrong.”

The woman is suing Hertz fordamages and costs.david.hurley@news.com.au

DAVID HURLEY Former car-hire worker claims harassment

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019 heraldsun.com.au NEWS 31

A statement of claim filed with thecourt states the woman’s colleaguewould “frequently stand very close tothe applicant when talking to her”,invade her personal space and placehis hands on her shoulders.

The woman has said she useddistracting words to try to diffuse thesituation.

“The (colleague) made no attemptto conceal his conduct from other em-ployees,” the state of claim states.

“The conduct occurred within thepresence of other staff members rost-ered on at various times and in variousbranches … at the Melbourne Airport.

“The applicant tried to gauge thereaction of other employees to theinappropriate conduct, however noother staff commented on it.”

In May 2016 the woman was work-ing a night shift at Melbourne Airportand her colleague was also rostered towork the same shift, alone with her.

“During the shift, the second re-spondent made unwelcome sexualadvances to the applicant and sexual-ly assaulted the applicant,” the state-ment of claim states.

The woman says she recoiled andmade it clear the sexual advanceswere not welcome.

She says she reported the man’sbehaviour to superiors but the behav-iour continued.

One of her managers said the man’sbehaviour was not acceptable and she would “have a word with him”.

The man’s behaviour towards thewoman then became angry, thewoman has claimed.

“In July 2016 the second respondenttold the applicant to “F--- off” in an ag-gressive tone,” the statement of claim states.

“In March 2017 the second respon-dent called the applicant a ‘slut’.”

After that incident the woman took