Activist, mayor settle dispute
A BITTER three-year battle involving allegations of death threats, harassment and trespassing between former Golden Plains Shire mayor Owen Sharkey and community activist Andrea Bolton has come to a close.
Although originally preparing to spend three days at Geelong Magistrates Court fighting a personal safety order application, Ms Bolton told the Geelong Advertiser she and Mr Sharkey came to an agreement in seven hours.
The agreement means he has declared Ms Bolton is “not responsible for any death threat or other threat, including stalking and harassment, made against him or his family”. Likewise, she declared Mr Sharkey was not responsible for the harassment at her property.
Ms Bolton said it was important her Inverleigh community understood she did not harass, stalk or send any sort of threat to Mr Sharkey.
“I did everything in my power to solve this from day one but I couldn’t get the police to do it, I couldn’t get the counMs
cil to do it. It’s been very difficult and it has manifested in (poor) behaviour from people in my community,” she said.
The bad blood between the pair started at a meeting to change the town’s streetscape.
Although there are different accounts of what was said, the fallout escalated into court proceedings this week.
In an application and summons for an intervention order, obtained by the Geelong Advertiser, Mr Sharkey said Ms Bolton had engaged in a 100-day campaign of posting on his Facebook page with “negative comments” that have “seriously (affected) my professional and personal life”.
It was also alleged some of this harassment came via email, but she said she had sent only four emails and never to him personally. In all four, the emails were sent to Golden Plains Shire councillors.
Desperate to clear her name, Bolton said she approached police and “asked to be investigated”, going so far as offering to hand over her phone and laptop so they could clear the death threat allegations.
An active community member approached for comment, who asked to remain anonymous, said receiving emails from the community was “just part of the job”.
“They are both very polarising figures in the community, but it is my belief that this matter could have been mediated a couple of years ago,” he said.
“It’s been a very tough time for all parties involved.”
Ms Bolton said that since the streetscapes meeting, she had been the subject of “unintended consequences”, including people trespassing on her property.
She made clear she did not believe Mr Sharkey was in any way involved with the harassment at her property.
In response to request for comment, Mr Sharkey said: “I appeared on Monday with legal representation while Ms Bolton had no legal representation. My barrister negotiated a deal with both herself and Cr Brett Cunningham.”