Court documents allege Peter Slipper made advances towards James Ashby at the Speaker's Sunshine Coast home

IT started at Peter Slipper's comfortable Sunshine Coast home, court documents allege.

Peter Slipper

IT started at Peter Slipper's comfortable Sunshine Coast home, court documents allege.

James Ashby, 33, had been invited to the MP for Fisher's house at Gleneagle Rd, Buderim, by a mutual acquaintance, a man who was launching a bid for a seat on the local council.

It didn't take long before the conversation turned to sex, it is claimed.

Mr Ashby, best known until now as the adviser who grabbed a journalist's mobile phone and threw it away during one of Mr Slipper's press conferences last month, has documented in his application to the Federal Court an alleged litany of sexual innuendos, flirting via text, harassment and outright invitations to have sex.

At that first visit back in June or August last year, Mr Ashby claims Mr Slipper asked him if he knew whether their mutual acquaintance was gay or heterosexual.

Mr Ashby said he told Mr Slipper that he had no idea about the person's sexual orientation but that he had been quite open about his own sexuality: he told Mr Slipper that he was gay.

About two months later, in October, Mr Slipper's job offers began. He twice offered Mr Ashby the job as his media adviser. Twice Mr Ashby, who had been working in public relations and marketing, turned him down.

But Mr Slipper was persistent, Mr Ashby claims, and in December made him an offer in writing as an adviser.

By this time, Mr Slipper had been installed as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives and Mr Ashby resigned as a member of the Liberal National Party and accepted the job as an adviser to Mr Slipper on December 22 last year.

It was a job, Mr Ashby claims, that led to him suffering "considerable stress, humiliation, and illness".

Just over a week into it, Mr Ashby moved from Queensland to Canberra where, he claims, Mr Slipper insisted he was to stay with him at his flat in Hughes. Mr Slipper allegedly said his long-term adviser Tim Knapp and other staff usually stayed there with him.

During the following few days, Mr Ashby alleges Mr Slipper said to him: "Tim says you're my f ... buddy."

Another day, he allegedly asked Mr Ashby to massage his neck.

"(Mr Slipper) then lay on his bed. He did not have a shirt on and was clothed only in shorts," Mr Ashby claims in the documents filed in the Federal Court.

"(Mr Ashby) stood beside the bed and began to massage (Mr Slipper)'s neck. After about a minute (Mr Slipper) began to moan in a manner that to (Mr Ashby) indicated intense sexual pleasure. Mr Ashby was shocked, felt very uncomfortable at what was happening, and stopped immediately, saying 'You're done', and proceeded to leave the room. (Mr Slipper) said 'Oh that felt so good'."

The next morning, Thursday January 5, and still just two weeks into his new job, Mr Ashby claims his new boss told him: "You're a strange one. You're weird because you shower with the door shut."

Mr Slipper called him a prude and went on to say: "You even go to the toilet with the door shut."

Mr Ashby claims he told Mr Slipper that it wasn't weird but perfectly normal to wash and go to the toilet with the door shut.

When he woke up the next morning, it was to the sound of the shower and the sight of the bathroom door open.

He claims Mr Slipper continued to shower with the door open for the rest of that week on Canberra.

On the way back to Queensland that weekend, Mr Ashby claims Mr Slipper "spitefully" taunted him about looking fat in a new purple shirt he had bought in Canberra.

A week later, on the morning of January 14 this year, Mr Ashby claims he picked father-of-three Mr Slipper up from the home where he lives with his wife to drive him to meet with some of his constituents.

They pulled up for a takeaway coffee at a cafe a couple of kilometres away and as they sat in the car with their drinks, Mr Slipper allegedly asked Mr Ashby: "Have you ever c ... in a guy's a ... before?"

"(Mr Ashby) was shocked to hear this question from his employer and replied 'That's not the kind of question you ask people, Peter'," the court documents claim.

Mr Ashby claims that some weeks later he was again driving his boss around when Mr Slipper allegedly asked him: "Twinks or bears - what are you into?"

"(Mr Ashby) recognised the question as relating to types of gay sexual partners and was uncomfortable, replying: 'They are not questions you ask'," the court documents claim.

Then the text messages started, first ending in one "x" and then "Xxx". They continued late into the evening.

"While (Mr Ashby) could assume that one "x" was a mistake, he became concerned at three and viewed the message as bizarre," according to the court documents. Mr Ashby claims that after "declining the sexual invitations" of Mr Slipper, the MP's attitude changed.

Mr Slipper told him to communicate with him only through Mr Knapp and withdrew his invitation to join a cruise on Sydney Harbour with a delegation from Samoa including the Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa.

But he alleges that Mr Slipper did not stop trying.

On March 1, as he prepared a YouTube video of Mr Slipper explaining the significance of the mace in parliament, Mr Ashby claims Mr Slipper stroked his arm, saying: "You do such a beautiful job with these videos."

On March 20, he claims Mr Slipper walked into his office and said; "Can I kiss you both?" There was no one else present.

"By this time (Mr Ashby) had formed the view that (Mr Slipper) had recruited him to his personal staff for the purpose of pursuing a sexual relationship," the court documents allege.

"(Mr Ashby) was further informed by (Mr Slipper) that (Mr Slipper) had in November 2011 interviewed another gay man for the purpose of recruiting that man to the office."