Daughter's heartbreaking question to her newsman dad - as sacked Seven News reporter Robert Ovadia launches furious blast at 'evil' TV bosses over devastating allegations and reveals the chilling death threat he received

TV newsman Robert Ovadia has hit back at 'evil' Seven Network bosses after his own daughter asked him a heartbreaking question in the wake of his sudden sacking.

In the Federal Court last week, Seven alleged that '13 more women' have made complaints against the former star reporter.

But the claim prompted Ovadia's teenage daughter to ask her father if people would now think her 'dad is a rapist'.

On Tuesday, Ovadia, 51, revealed the devastating comment in a post on social media, and said he was now braced for more dirt allegations in the increasingly bitter row.

'I'll expect more smear over the coming months as this evil company (in whose service I risked my life and safety many times) now seeks to destroy my reputation further,' he added.

Ovadia revealed he had also received a chilling death threat from a man who posts images of guns on his Instagram page.

'Hey ringworm,' read the disturbing message to Ovadia. 

'When do you want to be brutally murdered?'

Ovadia said he had also been flooded with messages of support since Seven filed the new allegations. 

The Walkley Award-winning journalist has repeatedly and vehemently denied any wrongdoing or inappropriate conduct on his part during his 23-year career at Seven. 

Posting a series of the messages received, he added: 'Feel free to scroll through a few recent interactions with women I've worked with vs Seven's Propaganda Unit.

'I can be crass, I can be blunt, I can be obnoxious, my humour is dark - 20 years surrounded by trauma and danger will do all of that to you.

'But I do NOT mistreat women. At least the Four Corners hatchet job got one thing right - the Seven Network is diabolical.' 

Ovadia was sacked in June over two Seven newsroom image exchanges and filed a suit in the Federal Court for wrongful dismissal.

His legal claim against the Seven Network and Seven West Media’s news and editor-in-chief, Anthony De Ceglie, had its first case file management meeting last week. 

At that meeting, Seven's lawyers alleged that since his sacking, the complaints have piled up against the 51-year-old senior reporter. 

But in support of Ovadia, one female former colleague posted, 'All the girls I worked alongside with you loved the playfulness ... the cheeky big kid side of you, never knowing what we were in for except that (work was) going to be fun and made that little easier though all of us interacting like that!

'There would be some long depressing nights without it. You're the furthest thing from a bully or anything of the kind. This is all so incomprehensible.

'We wouldn't want you to ever have to feel like you couldn't be yourself as a result of such ridiculous allegations. It's incredibly unfair.' 

In another comment sent to Ovadia, a male supporter wrote: 'I place you in the same category as your former colleague Chris Reason in that you are a seasoned professional.

'I like many others do not believe the stories being circulated about you. Keep up the good fight and may you be victorious.' 

When Seven stood down the veteran Sydney reporter, the network said it would conduct an internal investigation into allegations of 'inappropriate behaviour'. 

Ovadia was initially accused of creating edited photos and a caricature of a female, 'Person A', and sending those to that person, an act which did not constitute sexual harassment, his statement of claim to the court said.

He also allegedly sent a photo copied from the internet of a flaccid penis to 'Person B' which was not of a sexual nature and did not amount to sexual harassment,  documents filed by his lawyers said.

'No reasonable employer could have formed the view that the conduct amounted to sexual harassment, the photo was not conduct of a sexual nature,' his statement of claim said.

Seven's legal counsel Vanja Bulut,said last week the network had email evidence of complaints about Ovadia’s conduct from another 13 women.

'Subsequent to the applicant’s dismissal, 13 more females have come forward with complaints in relation to his conduct, and they’re now subject to investigation,' Bulut told Federal Court Justice Elizabeth Raper.

'The applicant has been put on notice of that.'

Ovadia’s lawyers argued in court that their client’s conduct did not amount to sexual harassment or serious misconduct and alleged he was unlawfully sacked.