Former HSU boss Kathy Jackson scolded in court for taking toilet break without asking permission
FORMER union boss Kathy Jackson got a kiss from a wellwisher outside court before receiving an embarrassing scolding inside it for trying to walk out and use the toilet.
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FORMER union boss Kathy Jackson got a kiss from a wellwisher outside court before being scolded inside it for trying to walk out and use the toilet.
In an embarrassing courtroom scene, Ms Jackson was abruptly told to stop by magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg as she was midway between her courtroom seat and the exit door.
The former Health Services Union boss had travelled from her home in NSW to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court where she now faces 164 theft and fraud charges.
A stunned Ms Jackson mouthed the words, “I need to use the bathroom”, but the magistrate was not prepared to let her go quietly.
“Don’t think you can get up and leave, Ms Jackson,” Mr Rozencwajg barked.
He informed Ms Jackson she needed to ask her lawyer to request permission to go to the toilet while her case was in progress. He then let her go.
On her return, Ms Jackson heard prosecutors had upped the number of charges against her from 70 to 164.
It came after a wellwisher planted a kiss on her lips as she walked inside court.
While all of the additional charges are a result of prosecutors filing alternative charges to the original 70, some previous charges had been amended to include new details of her alleged offending.
Police allege the one-time whistleblower misrepresented about $500,000 worth of personal expenses as union costs.
Court documents accuse Ms Jackson of illegally using union funds to stay at plush hotels in Hong Kong, New York and gambling mecca Las Vegas, and splurging on consumer goods with the membership fees of some of Australia’s lowest-paid workers.
Investigators from Taskforce Heracles, a joint operation between Victorian and federal police, allege Ms Jackson defrauded and stole the money from union coffers between July 2003 and January 2011.
The court heard officials from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre were likely to be among witnesses cross-examined by Ms Jackson’s defence at her preliminary hearing in November.
Her lawyer, Philip Beazley, told the court a $250,000 payment made from the hospital to the union was a legitimate payment made for penalties owed to the HSU by the hospital.
The jetsetting ex-official, who blew the whistle on former HSU secretary and Labor MP Craig Thomson, has denied any wrongdoing. She will appear in court via videolink at her next court date in August.