Three key players
Tense, tearful and sometimes salacious civil jury trial ends with substantial damages award to Taxpayers’ Union director who sued former Conservative leader Colin Craig, writes Anna Leask
T o those in the courtroom, the case was known as Williams v Craig. Taxpayers’ Union director Jordan Williams had filed a civil case against former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig, alleging he had been defamed.
It was the first civil jury trial in the High Court since 2002 and across more than two weeks, a jury of five women and six men heard allegations and accusations, evidence and explanations. Yesterday a jury ruled in favour of Williams and ordered Craig to pay almost $ 1.3 million in damages.
This is what the trial was about, from the perspective of the three main players — Jordan Williams, Colin Craig and his former press secretary Rachel MacGregor. Each player’s version of events is based on what they told the court.
Jordan Williams
On September 19, 2014, Rachel MacGregor quit as press secretary for Conservative Party leader Colin Craig.
Her resignation sparked speculation and rumours started to fly about her reasoning.
Williams had known MacGregor for a while — they were mates but not exceptionally close at that stage — and he reached out to her that day.
He heard nothing for weeks. Then she responded, she wanted to talk and she needed advice.
Williams was a trained lawyer and she needed someone to help and support her. MacGregor told Williams she had filed a sexual harassment complaint against Craig with the Human Rights Commission.
“She confided in me that Mr Craig had been sexually harassing her over a very long period of time,” Williams told the court on September 6.
MacGregor told him Craig had stopped paying her when she refused to reciprocate his romantic advances.
“She said she did not know what to do. She wanted me to help her, she trusted me,” Williams said.
MacGregor showed Williams letters and poems from her former boss that appeared to be love letters.
Though she disclosed all of this to Williams in confidence, he felt it was too serious to keep to himself.
He decided to pass the information to members of the Conservative Party board including chief executive Christine Rankin, chairman Brian Dobbs and Laurence Day.
He said he was driven to out Craig’s behaviour simply — and only — because “it was the right thing to do”.
Williams went further — he leaked one of the poems to blogger Cameron Slater, who published it on Whale Oil.
Craig felt like he was under attack and said Williams was “spreading false accusations”.
He responded by publishing a booklet titled Dirty Politics and Hidden Agendas in which he named Williams as a “schemer” and accused him of being part of a smear campaign to have him removed as party leader. In the booklet, sent to more than 1.6 million homes, Craig listed a number of what he called lies that Williams and others had told about him. . Craig repeated this allegation at a press conference, supported by his wife Helen, and said he would take legal action against Williams.
But Williams got in first, filing a civil case against Craig in the High Court and alleging the politician had defamed him in the booklet and at the press conference.
Colin Craig
It was t wo days before the 2014 general election when this all started for Colin Craig.
He was in the car with his press secretary Rachel MacGregor, heading from the North Shore to central Auckland for early morning radio interviews.
Then, suddenly, she wanted out. She got out of the car, met her boyfriend who was waiting nearby and told Craig she was not going to the interviews.
He said he learned later that day that she had resigned.
The resignation was big news and Craig was inundated with media requests. There was an election and this was not what he needed.
Over the next few months he tried to contact MacGregor but got no response. Then early last year he got an email advising him she had made a sexual harassment complaint against him to the Human Rights Commission and that she wanted him to pay her outstanding wage invoices.
A couple of months later Craig and MacGregor went to mediation organised by the HRC and resolved their issues.
He paid her $ 16,000 for her final invoice and she withdrew the sexual harassment complaint. Both signed a confidentiality agreement.
Sometime after that Craig started to hear things.
He became aware that Williams had gone to board members and disclosed information about his correspondence and relationship with his press secretary. A story appeared on a blog featuring a poem he had written to MacGregor.
He spoke to his wife and they decided the best thing to do was release a booklet addressing the lies one by one. That way, they thought, their truth would be out there in full and the media would not be able to pick and choose what was reported or “twist” the story.
During the trial, Craig, as he did in the booklet, outlined the “lies” he alleges Williams told about him to Conservative Party members. He said Williams told them he sexually assaulted MacGregor by kissing her, grabbing her breast and forcing her on to a bed on the night of the 2011 general election; that he sent sexual text messages; and that he forced her into debt by refusing to pay her because she refused to sleep with him.
“Each of these allegations i s untrue,” Craig said.
Craig said the allegation he sent sex messages to MacGregor, including one where he told her he had slept well because he dreamed of sleeping between her naked legs, was “simply untrue”.
He also addressed an “incident” between him and MacGregor on election night in 2011. The pair were at a post- election party when it is claimed Craig kissed her and touched her inappropriately.
It was described as sexual assault by some in the courtroom.
“An incident did occur where we kissed,” Craig said. “It was a big mistake on my part and I deeply regret it. It certainly was not non- consensual,” he said, adding that he “absolutely did not” sexually assault MacGregor.
“That was a highly damaging allegation.”
Craig then spoke about the “love letters” he sent MacGregor.
He acknowledged that some people would read more into them than was intended but “they are what they are”.
Craig said Williams and others claimed he had paid a six- figure sum to MacGregor to settle her claim of sexual harassment. “I did not pay anything,” he said. “My wife and I carefully considered the booklet, its contents and whether it was the right thing do to. Ultimately we thought it was the only way.”
Rachel MacGregor
MacGregor was not on trial or involved in any civil action against her former boss. Rather, she was called as a witness for Williams and gave evidence accordingly.
She told the court that being on the stand and having her personal life examined by the media and public was her worst nightmare.
MacGregor was hired as Craig’s press secretary in 2011 and the pair worked well together.
They became very close. So close that on the night of the 2011 general election, they kissed.
Both agreed it was a stupid mistake and, with Craig’s wife, put boundaries in place to ensure their relationship remained professional.
However, MacGregor said Craig continued to push his luck.
He had written her “flowery” notes and cards from early on in her employment and in the beginning she reciprocated.
But after the 2011 incident his attention became “dodgy”.
She wanted to leave but had no other job to go to, and she had built up a bit of credit card debt so she couldn’t go without a wage.
In the lead- up to the 2014 general election, MacGregor approached her boss for a pay increase.
“Mr Craig repeatedly refused to discuss the matter further so that it could be finalised and settled.”
MacGregor said the pay issue was compounded by her belief that she was being sexually harassed by her boss.
“As the election campaign went on I became increasingly anxious that he would not pay me. I had also begun to consider filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission over Mr Craig’s sexual harassment of me.”
The day MacGregor resigned she filed the HRC complaint and on May 4, 2015 the pair attended mediation.
A few weeks after she resigned, MacGregor turned to her friend — Jordan Williams.
“I wanted advice on whether I should go to the board of the Conservative Party to seek help in getting the money Mr Craig owed me,” she said.
Some time later she started a romantic relationship with Williams and he allowed her to keep the Craig letters in the safe in his office to prevent them getting into the wrong hands.
When she found out Williams had shared the letters with other Conservative Party members — he says in a bid to warn them about Craig’s alleged behaviour ahead of the election — she felt very upset.
“I did not confide in Jordan as part of any conspiracy to hurt Mr Craig or cause him public embarrassment,” she said. “I did not confide in Jordan with the expectation that he would betray my trust. I confided in Jordan because I knew he was a lawyer and someone who understood politics.”
Williams’ lawyer Peter McKnight asked her if she had been sexually harassed and treated badly by Craig.
“Absolutely. It really has ruined my life . . . I am overweight . . . this has impacted on my family, my friends, my health,” she said.
“I can’t wait for this to be over. I wish these dudes would stop suing each other so this could be over for me.”