Roman Quaedvlieg’s younger partner accused of lying to investigators
ROMAN Quaedvlieg’s young girlfriend, Sarah Rogers, will today face charges of giving false or misleading information to corruption investigators over her relationship with the former Border Force boss.
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ROMAN Quaedvlieg’s young girlfriend, Sarah Rogers, will today face charges of giving false or misleading information to corruption investigators over her relationship with the former Border Force boss.
Ms Rogers, 23, is understood to have told investigators she was not in a relationship with the married Australian Border Force Commissioner when she got a job within his organisation in December 2016, working as a casual employee at Sydney Airport.
The role Mr Quaedvlieg, 52, played in Ms Rogers’ employment became the subject of a corruption investigation by the powerful Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
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The Daily Telegraph understands Ms Rogers voluntarily handed over her mobile phone and gave her password to the independent anti-corruption agency, allowing the investigators to access encrypted messages between the two lovers.
The phone access showed exchanges between the pair were, at times, intimate, including when she was applying for a job within Mr Quaedvlieg’s organisation.
ACLEI has the power to intercept pone calls and access data without physically seizing a mobile phone, but it would not have been able to access encrypted messages without having physical possession of Ms Rogers’ phone and being given the password.
The couple had told the investigators that they were just friends when she applied for the job and their romantic relationship developed later.
Mr Quaedvlieg has strongly denied he was romantically involved with Ms Rogers when she applied for the job and has argued any flirtatious messages are not proof of a relationship.
He has argued that the messages were taken out of context.
Mr Quaedvlieg is still the subject of a criminal investigation himself.
Ms Rogers will today face Downing Centre Local Court on charges of giving false or misleading information. She has also been charged with disclosing the existence of or information about a summons to another person. She has had no prior court charges.
The Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last week sensationally accused Mr Quaedvlieg of “grooming” a woman 30 years his junior under parliamentary privilege.
Mr Dutton is the subject of a Senate inquiry and has been under attack for using his ministerial discretion to grant visas for an Italian nanny and a French au pair.
“This smear is coming from … a man who was, as commissioner, sacked from his position. He is a man who had groomed a girl 30 years younger than himself. He is discredited and disgraced,” Mr Dutton said in Parliament.
“He (Mr Quaedvlieg) is somebody that the Labor Party shouldn’t rely on … it’s clear to me that Roman Quaedvlieg is your Godwin Grech.
Mr Quaedvlieg responded to Mr Dutton’s statements on social media: “Grooming? Are you serious? That has a legislative meaning. Is that what he meant? Parliamentary privilege huh?”
He also labelled it “extraordinary behaviour” from a cabinet minister.