Report due into sexual harassment claims against Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle

THE report into sexual harassment claims against Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle is expected to be handed back to the council within days.

AN INDEPENDENT report into sexual harassment and indecent assault allegations against Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle is expected to return to the council within days.

Dr Ian Freckelton QC was engaged by City of Melbourne chief Ben Rimmer to launch the probe after then-Councillor Tessa Sullivan last month lodged a 24-page dossier of claims against Cr Doyle and resigned.

EXCLUSIVE: TEXTS BETWEEN COUNCILLOR AND LORD MAYOR ROBERT DOYLE PROMPT DRAMATIC TWIST IN SCANDAL

Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. Picture: AAP

Ms Sullivan, a mother of three, alleged that Cr Doyle handled her right breast in May and made a lewd comment inside a Town Hall lift in October as part of a raft of claims.

Cathy Oke

The Herald Sun revealed last month that Greens councillor Cathy Oke had also said that Cr Doyle had touched her thigh during an evening function in 2014.

And it is understood to have been claimed that after a council meeting in late 2016 or early last year Cr Doyle embraced Cr Oke and attempted to kiss her on the mouth in his office.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Tessa Sullivan. Picture: David Caird

The scandal took a twist yesterday as texts emerged of Ms Sullivan begging the Lord Mayor to come to lavish party for Team Doyle at Yering Station winery in late November.

When Cr Doyle said he couldn’t attend due to a counter-terrorism briefing by police, Ms Sullivan said in a text on November 17 that she was “DEVASTATED”.

“Are you sure you can’t rearrange anything? Please, please, pretty please?!” she wrote.

About six weeks earlier, in a text starting with “Hi Darl”, Ms Sullivan invited the Lord Mayor and his family for a snow trip and offered him a spare seat on a helicopter to watch the AFL Grand Final.

Cr Doyle was also invited to celebrate a Sullivan family birthday in November.

The Lord Mayor has stood aside pending the findings of the probe, but is vigorously fighting the allegations.