Man charged over threatening to kill Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz and their pet cavoodle

The man allegedly said he would kill Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz ‘when you least expect it’, and was also planning to harm their pet dog, Kingston.

Brittany Higgins and partner David Sharaz as seen on social media

A NSW man has been charged after allegedly threatening to kill Brittany Higgins, her fiance and their pet cavoodle over social media.

David William Wonnocot, 49, allegedly told Ms Higgins’ partner David Sharaz he would “kill you both when you least expect it” and that he was planning to “chop Kingston [pet dog] up into little pieces”, according to messages seen by The Australian.

Mr Wonnocot also allegedly told Mr Sharaz that he would follow him and Ms Higgins home and “destroy you all”.

Terrorism squad detectives arrested the man at 10am on Wednesday in Tweed Heads on the NSW north coast and charged him with using a carriage service to make threats to kill and menace, harass and offend.

Police raided Mr Wonnocot’s home and vehicle in Banora Point and served him with a firearms ban.

A NSW Police spokesperson said the messages regarding Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz were uncovered during an investigation into threats of violence made on social media about participants of a mass gathering.

“During the investigation, detectives uncovered a total of 49 messages with similar threats or offensive content sent from a number of accounts, which were believed to be linked,” said the spokesperson.

“Further inquiries revealed one of the accounts was also linked to messages sent on social media to a man in the ACT, allegedly threatening to kill the man, his partner, and their pet dog.”

The police spokesperson said Mr Wonnocot been released on strict conditional bail and said there was no current or impending threat to the community.

He will appear before Tweed Heads Local Court on May 31.

Ms Higgins rose to prominence after publicly alleging her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann raped her on the office couch of then cabinet minister Linda Reynolds in the early hours of March 23 in 2019 after a night out drinking.

A highly publicised trial against Mr Lehrmann on charges of rape, who has consistently denied the allegations, was aborted in October last year due to juror misconduct.

Prosecutor Shane Drumgold declined to pursue a second trial against Mr Lehrmann citing concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health.

An inquiry into the investigation into Mr Lehrmann and the handling of Ms Higgins’ allegations began on Monday.

Mr Sharaz and a spokeswoman for Ms Higgins were approached for comment.

Ms Higgins said she was grateful for the work of NSW Police in a post on Instagram. “Online harassment and death threats are never okay,” she said.