Magistrate Rodney Higgins’ cashed-up retirement in jeopardy after Ashleigh Petrie death benefit fury

Magistrate Rodney Higgins’ dream of earning $1380 a day in retirement could be jeopardised amid fury he’s cashing in on his late 23-year-old fiancee’s death benefit.

Magistrate Rodney Higgins could be excluded from ongoing work as a magistrate, destroying his dream of earning a minimum $1,380 a day in his retirement.

Mr Higgins, who is expected to retire within a month when he turns 70, had hoped to continue on the bench as a reserve magistrate for several more years.

But Department of Justice sources have told the Herald Sun that move is now under a cloud amid internal fury over his battle for his late fiance’s $180,000 death benefit.

Questions had already been cast over Mr Higgins’ suitability to sit on the bench after his engagement to 23-year-old court clerk Ashleigh Petrie was revealed in 2019.

A complaint to the Judicial Commission of Victoria was subsequently dismissed.

Ashleigh Petrie and Victorian magistrate Rodney Higgins.

But sources say senior judicial figures have openly discussed their anger after learning Mr Higgins was involved in a protracted legal fight against Ms Petrie’s mother, who was listed as her only beneficiary in her will.

They say while there is no mechanism for Mr Higgins to be sacked without the involvement of the Attorney-General, the chief magistrate could stop him working as a reserve judge.

“Reserve isn’t a guarantee. If you’re a bad appointment, it won’t happen,” one senior source said.

“While it’s not sacking you, it can take away a good five to 10 years of continued earning.”

On the base sessional rate for reserve magistrates Mr Higgins, who currently earns $324,000 a year, would have had to work two days a week for a year to earn the equivalent of the $180,000 death benefit he was awarded.

The couple became engaged in Fiji in 2019.

Magistrate Rodney Higgins.

Sources close to Ms Petrie’s family say they were told by Rest Super that Mr Higgins had contacted them the day after Ms Petrie was killed after being hit by a car in October 2019.

The 23-year-old clerk from Mirboo North had announced her engagement to Mr Higgins only weeks earlier.

After the controversial court relationship was revealed staff across Victoria’s magistrates’ courts were warned over inappropriate relationships with judicial officers.

Concerns had been raised with Victoria’s Chief Magistrate Peter Lauritsen over a power imbalance between Mr Higgins and Ms Petrie.

The young clerk told the paper she was aware of several relationships between magistrates and junior staff.

A coronial inquest ruled Ms Petrie’s death a suicide.

The investigating coroner determined that the finding would not be published.