Driver vows to hit back

A DELIVERY driver who was ordered to pay an Eastlands store worker $45,000 for sexual harassment has vowed to fight the decision a second time, claiming the audio evidence was doctored.

Frayne Higgins appeared at the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Wednesday to learn the outcome of his appeal against an earlier Anti-Discrimination Tribunal of Tasmania decision.

He had argued a $20,000 portion of the aggravated damages sum was “manifestly excessive”.

The tribunal had ordered him to pay the sum within 30 days to a former Sanity employee, who had said Mr Higgins had slapped her bottom and called her “juicy”.

But Chief Justice Alan Blow told the court on Wednesday he dismissed Mr Higgins’ appeal, and dismissed the interlocutory application.

He ordered Mr Higgins to pay the woman’s court costs.

But Mr Higgins said he would take his appeal “higher”.

“I believe that the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal has doctored and altered the audio,” he said.

Eve Marriott, the executive assistant to the tribunal’s chair, previously gave evidence that the audio couldn’t be changed or altered in any way, but it was possible there could be a slight delay in the recording at the beginning of proceedings.

According to the tribunal’s decision, the music shop employee lodged a complaint in 2017, alleging that during 2013 and 2014, Mr Higgins would pop up between the racks and scare her, and frequently asked whether she had a boyfriend.

Tribunal member Kate Cuthbertson had said previously the woman received a phone call from Mr Higgins’ wife, demanding to speak with her about the complaint against her husband.

And she later received a letter from Mr Higgins’ lawyer demanding $30,000 for defamation plus a written apology.

Ms Cuthbertson had said the complainant’s evidence was convincing and found most of her allegations true.

The tribunal did not uphold the woman’s claims of victimisation regarding the defamation letter, but said it was a key aggravating feature of Mr Higgins’ misconduct, which had a “profound” impact on the woman’s mental health.

The grave of women’s rights campaigner Jessie Spinks Rooke before and after it was restored at Wivenhoe Cemetery, Burnie.