Kurtley Beale scandal: ARU failed to check former staffer Di Patston’s phone records
- <cite>REBECCA WILSON</cite>
- <cite>THE DAILY TELEGRAPH</cite>
- OCTOBER 27, 2014 10:00PM
FORMER Australian Rugby Union employee
Di Patston was allowed to keep her phone without her records being checked or messages deciphered when she resigned her job in sensational circumstances several weeks ago.
The Daily Telegraph can also exclusively reveal that the controversial second message, alleged by ARU boss Bill Pulver to have been sent by Kurtley Beale, was not sent to a single Wallabies player on the What’sApp software.
Beale was on Friday fined $45,000 for sending the first lewd text message in June via What’s App to his Wallabies teammates. He inadvertently sent it to Patston.
Although Patston told Pulver that the second message was also sent by Beale to the players, IT experts and the players themselves have confirmed that no such second message was registered on What’s App.
The phone records from Patston’s phone have never been checked in the same forensic manner as Beale’s.
Those experts spent four hours deciphering the messages and matching them up to Beale’s phone written phone records.
Remarkably,
Pulver refused to take Patston’s phone back or ask for similar checks on her phone even though Beale’s future was in the balance. Those experts who saw both messages confirmed they had not come from the same phone and that the composition, colour tones and clarity of the images were different.
Patston spoke to The Australian newspaper on Sunday where she referred to confidential legal documents from Beale’s legal team which the ARU sent to Patston last week, even though she is no longer an employee and did not appear at the ARU tribunal on Friday.
Instead of facing the panel hearing and making her allegations in front of the tribunal, Patston opted for a newspaper interview with a rugby union reporter.
Senior legal experts contacted by The Daily Telegraph on Monday claimed Patston had no legal right to sight the documents and the ARU should not have provided her with the confidential statements contained within those documents.
The Daily Telegraph understands Patston is pursuing legal action against the ARU for damages, in a similar vein to her action against the Queensland council she worked for before joining the Queensland Rugby Union. She received an undisclosed payout from the council for a spider bite she claimed occurred on the job.
Pulver refused to answer a list of questions submitted by The Daily Telegraph on Monday. Why he did not double check Patston’s statement when she made the serious allegations against Beale remains unknown.
Rugby insiders confirmed on Monday that Pulver had been warned by senior Queensland Rugby Union officials, where Patston was previously employed, not to hire the former secretary and council administrative officer. In spite of the warnings, Patston’s role with the Wallabies grew from Ewen McKenzie’s personal assistant to business manager of the team.
Pulver signed a three-year deal with the Wallabies in January, 2013. He will earn himself a 12-month payout if he survives in the job until January 2015, something that looks less and less likely given his management of recent events.