Marsden seeks Heffernan probe

Marsden seeks Heffernan probe

Lawyer John Marsden has confirmed he will meet with NSW police next week to seek an investigation into Bill Heffernan’s dealings with a witness who made accusations about Marsden to the Wood Royal Commission.

It was revealed this week that Senator Heffernan told numerous people, including fellow MPs and two journalists from The Australian, that he helped the witness buy a car last year.

It was also revealed that the man subsequently received employment on a property run by federal Liberal MP Joanna Gash.

Marsden consulted lawyers this week, alleging Heffernan may have interfered in his highly publicised defamation case against Channel Seven. Marsden is also pursuing allegations that Heffernan made direct contact with a witness in the case.

Yesterday, Marsden confirmed that he will now take his concerns further to the NSW police with the intention to have the matter investigated.

However, he backed away from revealing whom he will meet from the police force and was reticent about what he believed police might discover through an investigation into Heffernan’s interaction with the witness.

How the allegations are treated will be a matter for the police and will depend on whether they find there was an offence of perverting the course of justice, Marsden told Sydney Star Observer.

It is my understanding that giving rewards to possible witnesses or people making allegations against a person carries with it certain penalties. [But] I just don’t know at the moment how significantly [Heffernan] interfered in my legal action against Channel Seven. I just don’t know whether there was anything else he did beside helping that person buy the car.

Marsden said he felt some vindication from Heffernan’s sensational fall from parliamentary grace this week, but said he believed the impact Heffernan’s accusations had on Justice Michael Kirby would see Kirby suffer for years and years to come.

Michael would be going through total hell right now, the effect on him and his family would be devastating. These are people that look proudly on Michael as an international jurist -“ now his family could be confronted in the street by people that say he trawls the Wall for under-age boys, Marsden said.

I can tell you that I still suffer immensely. I still get abusive phone calls. I still get people playing nursery rhymes over the telephone. I still get spat on in the street and I still get stared at. The pain is still there and will be there forever.

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