Bizarre ‘murder’ claim behind Brian Burston’s text to female staffer: court

Former One Nation Senator Brian Burston told a court he texted ‘love you’ to a staffer because her mother was murdered - now the staffer says otherwise.

Former Senator Brian Burston claims he signed off “love you” in a text to a staffer because her mother was murdered - but now the staffer has testified her mother did not meet such a grisly end.

It comes as a second former staffer alleged Senator Burston made offered her “the best f*** you’ve ever had” as she cried in his office.

Mr Burston is suing Ms Hanson for defamation saying she falsely portrayed him as a sexual predator who harassed his female staff in a Facebook post, media interview and texts.

Ms Hanson insists the allegations are true and, this week, called two former staffers from Mr Burston’s Lake Macquarie electorate office to back her claims.

Pauline Hanson arrives at Sydney’s Federal Court with her legal team, Sue Chrysanthou SC and Danny Eid. Picture: Damian Shaw

Former staffer Terri-Lea Vairy has testified she felt humiliated, singled-out, degraded and uncomfortable as Mr Burston repeatedly hugged, kissed and complimented her, sometimes in front of other staff.

“I feel sick, it makes me feel sick and saddened by it all. Just humiliated,” Ms Vairy told the court this week.

Mr Burston told the court his interactions with Ms Vairy were appropriate and he never harassed her.

“You are great to be with and I cherish your friendship. Love you. Brian,” The senator texted to Ms Vairy in December 2017.

Ms Hanson’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, asked the former politician to explain why he told his staffer “love you” and Mr Burston said his explanation would “take a while”.

“Ms Vairy has a bit of a chequered life, in terms of personal distress and so on, her mother was murdered 45 when she was aged 12,” Mr Burston told the court this week.

Former One Nation and United Australia Party senator Brian Burston with Pauline Hanson in happier times before he launched defamation action against her. Picture: Facebook

Mr Burston went on to tell the court about other personal issues he understood Ms Vairy was facing and said “love you” as a way to show his support.

Ms Vairy, at the end of her evidence on Friday, was asked if her mother was murdered.

“No,” Ms Vairy replied.

Moments later Mr Burston’s former office manager, Wendy Leach, cried in the witness box on Friday recounting her dealings with a “crazy” colleague who was making her life hard in the office in mid-2017.

Ms Leach said she was crying in Mr Burston’s office when the senator told her he was a “softy for a woman in distress”.

“(Senator Burston) said ‘Wendy, you probably just need a good f***’,” Ms Leach told the court.

“I said ‘haha, thanks for trying to make me laugh’ - he wasn’t joking.”

Ms Leach said then-Senator Burston said he could “come to your house, no one needs to know, it will be the best f*** you’ve ever had”.

The court heard Ms Leach had relocated from the Queensland Gold Coast to take the high paying job in the NSW Lake Macquarie office and she told the court she feared losing her house if she quit.

“I thought he was an old uncle to me, an old dude from the country, like an uncle. It was filthy,” Ms Leach said.

In the first part of 2017, Ms Leach told the court, Senator Burston spoke about hiring his housekeeper, Terri-Lea Vairy, and it didn’t matter she was unqualified because she was “hot”.

“Right at the start he said ‘she’s a good looking thing, but as dumb as a shit carter’s horse’,” Ms Leach told the court.

Terrie-lea Vairy and Senator Pauline Hanson pictured outside the courthouse earlier this week. Picture: Monique Harmer

Ms Leach told the court then-Senator Burston repeatedly gawked at Ms Vairy and made comments about her breasts, clothes, hair and appearance.

Ms Leach said a staffer from another senator’s office told her “Brian is c***struck over Terri-Lea”.

Mr Burston denies every claim by Ms Hanson’s witnesses - he denied he ever made such explicit comments and rarely, if ever, even uses the word “f***” in speech.

He said he was devastated when Ms Hanson made a speech in the Senate saying an unnamed senator was facing multiple issues in his office.

“(I felt) devastated, actually, that a friend who was so close to me would say such a thing about me,” he told the Federal Court on Monday.

“What was she saying about you?” his barrister, Bruce McClintock SC asked.

“That I’m a sexual predator.”

The court has heard an allegation that Mr Burston said one of his staffers was ‘as ugly as a hat of arseholes’, a claim he denies.

Ms Leach was shown messages, between herself and Mr Burston, in which she described that same female staffer as “nasty”.

“She was a real nasty chick, but she didn’t deserve to get the sack because she was as ugly as a hat of arseholes,” Ms Leach told the court on Friday.

Later Ms Leach told the court “we weren’t very professional” in the senator’s office, and swore quite a lot.

Brian Burston pictured walking out of the Federal Court with his wife Rosalyn. Both have testified in the case. Picture: Monique Harmer

Ms Leach was fired from the job after going to a Buy a Bale concert in Tamworth with Ms Vairy.

The court has heard, from Mr Burston, that the women were sent to the event to represent him and take pictures for his official Facebook posts but did not reply to his requests.

He also instructed them not to drink, but they disobeyed him, he told the court.

Ms Leach denied that, telling the court she went to the Saturday night concert with her boyfriend in a strictly personal capacity and Mr Burston was actually asking for photographs of Ms Vairy.

When Ms Leach did not respond, the court has heard, Mr Burston threatened to sack them.

Ms Leach said she phoned the senator and swore at him - the former staffer apologised again to the court before describing the conversation.

“(I told him) ‘I’m f***ing sick of it, this f***ing infatuation, you’ve got to stop it now’,” Ms Leach told the court.

“He said (something like) ‘you’re disrespecting a federal senator’.”

Ms Leach said she knew she was going to get fired, as many other staff had done before her.

“I was panicked, I was on the chopping block, that‘s how it works,” she said.