Claims can’t be substantiated

The Labour Party inquiry into a former staffer’s alleged sexual assault found the allegation could not be substantiated.

The report, released yesterday, found inconsistencies in the alleged victim’s versions of events – particularly with regards to an email sent to the party.

It could not establish other allegations of sexual assault against the staffer but could substantiate complaints about ‘‘aggressive and overbearing’’ conduct, but this did not meet a criminal standard of bullying.

The man at the centre of these allegations said the report made clear the ‘‘serious allegations did not happen’’.

‘‘The information, witness statements, and messages considered by Maria Dew, QC, provided compelling evidence to support this finding.’’

Dew conducted the inquiry independently for the Labour Party.

It involved interviews with the staffer, five alleged victims, and 16 others, as well as a review of Facebook messages and texts between the alleged victim and staffer.

Stuff understands a sexual assault counsellor told the prime minister’s office yesterday that at least two of the young people who participated in the review were at risk of harming themselves, and should be given more time to look at the report before it was released publicly.

The complainant said she was first alerted to the report’s imminent release in an email from a solicitor at 7.30pm on Tuesday.

She said she and others in the survivor group asked the solicitor to go back to Labour and plead for more time.

‘‘We didn’t have enough notice,’’ the woman told Stuff.

Through tears, the woman said she was frantically worried about one of the other complainants, who had ‘‘gone AWOL’’ and had not been in contact with anyone since reading the report.

The woman said she had been told that any release process would be done with full collaboration with the complainant group.

‘‘They haven’t done that,’’ the woman said. ‘‘They have said this is what we are going to say, and they’ve gone ahead and done it anyway.’’

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister confirmed ‘‘mental health’’ issues had been discussed with a support professional yesterday afternoon, but maintained the issue raised was not more time needed, but the release of any information at all.

He said Labour had been clear from the start that ‘‘some form of summary’’ would be made public.

The report said the victim’s account of the alleged sexual assault ‘‘was incorrect in several critical respects in relation to the events of that evening’’.

It noted the alleged victim and staffer had been in a consensual relationship for eight months at the time, but Dew noted that prior sexual consent did not mean consent was continuous.

‘‘However, [the alleged victim’s] recollection of material events about the evening in February 2018 was clearly incorrect. Her allegation was also inconsistent with her own numerous contemporaneous Facebook messages with the respondent during that month and in surrounding months.’’

The alleged victim accepted as part of the investigation that she had provided misleading information to the investigation itself and the party about an email sent in early March of 2019.

The report noted the alleged victim maintained her relationship with the staffer was damaging and that there is evidence she reported her allegation in March of 2018.

This email was alleged to have contained an attachment detailing the alleged assault, but the report found that on ‘‘the balance of probabilities’’ it did not.