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Australia: Four victims now accuse former political staffer of assault

Author
Newstalk ZB / news.com.au,
Publish Date
Tue, 23 Feb 2021, 5:16PM
(Photo / Getty)
(Photo / Getty)

Australia: Four victims now accuse former political staffer of assault

Author
Newstalk ZB / news.com.au,
Publish Date
Tue, 23 Feb 2021, 5:16PM

The former Liberal staffer at the centre of allegations he assaulted Brittany Higgins and two other women has reportedly checked in to a private rehabilitation clinic, days after staying overnight in hospital and being stood down from his his job at a large corporation.

It is understood he admitted himself to Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, seeking psychiatric care, shortly after the story broke last week.

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, former employers, colleagues, and university peers of the man, who has worked for a large corporation in Sydney since July 2020, claim he was an ambitious, self-important and “a real lad’s lad”, but that they were shocked by the accusations.

A spokesman for the large corporation where he worked confirmed the man had been stood down, but would not confirm whether the company was asking its staff if they had experienced any misconduct.

Ms Higgins told news.com.au the man was a “rising star” within the Liberal Party at the time of her alleged assault. He had been working for the Coalition for four years.

However, students who studied with him at the Australian National University in 2016 said he had more confidence in his own skills than was warranted.

“He was not a nice person overall, he didn’t work hard, he just wanted … all the praise for doing pretty much nothing. A real lad’s lad,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported one former student as saying.

“He just thought more of himself than any of us did, he did literally nothing, just showed up for the drinking, the socialising.”

He was dismissed over the “security breach” in the days after the alleged incident involving Ms Higgins.

Meanwhile, Ms Higgins’ partner has resigned from his job. David Sharaz told news.com.au his job in Canberra, where he handled federal government clients for a media analytics company, is no longer tenable. He worked for Sky News and SBS before joining a media monitoring company this year.

Mr Sharaz said his bosses had been supportive and given him time off last week to support Ms Higgins but he accepted that his job, which involves seeking government contracts, was no longer tenable.

Mr Sharaz said his decision to resign had “no regrets” for standing by Ms Higgins and supporting her fight for justice.

 “I have absolutely no regrets in choosing to support my partner and I will continue to do so,’’ he told news.com.au.

“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Being supportive is the least that I - or any other partner of a victim-survivor can do.

“Brittany - and many others deserve better.”

Last week, news.com.au broke the story about Ms Higgins’ alleged sexual assault at Parliament House, after a night drinking with colleagues in March 2019.

It is understood that Ms Higgins intends to make a formal statement to police on Wednesday afternoon to reactivate an investigation into her allegations of rape.

In the days since the story broke, three other women – including another former Liberal Party staffer and a former Liberal Party volunteer – have come forward, claiming that they too either received unwelcome advances or were assaulted by the same man, a colleague who was regarded as a “rising star” in the party.

One of those women said she had met the man during the 2016 federal election campaign and they had stayed in touch.

She claims they caught up for dinner in 2020, where the former staffer bought her several drinks. She said they then went back to her home where she claimed she was raped.

Another woman, a Liberal Party volunteer, also alleges she was assaulted after a night of drinking with the man, who offered to “look after her” at his nearby hotel.

She claimed when she woke up, her blouse buttons were undone and her jeans pushed down and the man was “lying on top of her”.

The former staffer has not been charged over any of the alleged incidents.

A fourth woman has also claimed she was the target of inappropriate advances by the same man.

The woman made a report at a police station on Sunday according to Four Corners.

She alleges the man stroked her thigh under the table at Canberra’s popular Public Bar in 2017.

 

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