Australia: Sacked government adviser to tell court of MP porn ring run from Treasury Place offices.
The former senior adviser for the Victorian premier is to tell court he ran a porn ring that loaned adult movies to Coalition MPs and advisers from inside his office. He says “a number” of MPs were among about 12 people who shared pornography in 1 Treasury Place.
Don Coulson, once an adviser to former premier Ted Balilieu, was sacked days after Premier Denis Napthine took over in March last year.
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He is now suing the state government for wrongful dismissal, claiming $67,000 in redundancy payments he claims it owes him,
The Herald Sun exclusively revealed that Mr Coulson, 59, is set to tell a court that he facilitated the porn lending ring from his office.
Mr Coulson, who has denied accessing any material on his work equipment, has been alleged by Premier Denis Napthine’s lawyers in court documents and has challenged the Premier to prove his claims.
He claimed government staff saw the memory sticks in his personal belongings after he was “marched out of the office” after being sacked last year.
MSN reports:- the government claims Mr Coulson must return $30,000 in severance pay because he stored a “considerable amount” of pornography in his Treasury Place office while working for Mr Baillieu.
In its counterclaim, the government alleges that in 2001, Mr Coulson, 59, was disciplined for “downloading a large amount of pornography during work hours and using the resources of his public service employer”.
Mr Coulson told News Corp he denied the allegation and claims the only pornographic material he would have had in his office were memory sticks made available for collection by MPs and advisers to view on their private computers without breaking government IT rules.
“I believe at least one minister, and MPs, were accessing this material,” he was quoted as saying.
He said he was not sure exactly what sort of pornographic material was on the memory sticks and declined to name other people involved in the porn ring.
His case will begin in a Victorian County Court in February.