Speaker Peter Slipper’s harassment accuser and political player James Ashby has been accused by those familiar with his exploits on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast of socially introducing young gay men to the acquaintance of a close millionaire friend without disclosing the friend is HIV positive.

Sunshine Coast eye-witnesses intimately familiar with the situation say they would frequently party at night at the millionaire’s waterfront austere minimalist luxury mansion pleasure palace on a Sunshine Coast island we have chosen not to identify for privacy reasons.

HOUSE OF DANGER//PALACE OF PLEASURE
VEXNEWS understands the millionaire inherited a large sum of money from his family. We will not be naming Ashby’s friend, not so much for legal reasons but to protect his privacy as he appears not to be directly involved in the Ashby scandal. His health is a matter for him although it is obviously a gravely serious matter if he is having unprotected sex while having a serious communicable medical condition like HIV. The situation has been brought to the attention of local Police.

Ashby organised these party evenings, according to disgusted VEXNEWS sources, to please his millionaire friend who had been told by his lover in no uncertain terms that he was not willing to engage in unprotected sex with him in light of his condition.

So – VEXNEWS sources familiar with the matter explain – the millionaire friend was looking for some lovin’ of the non-condom-wearing kind and turned to his little mate James Ashby to arrange what he could. It has been suggested by sources that he procured a number of the victims by offering them employment or recruiting them from a cafe in the Sunshine Coast area.

These are worrying claims which say much about Ashby’s character, in our view. And it seems his character will be a central issue in the political resolution of the allegations – mostly uncorroborated or in part proven to be false – against the Speaker. Hopefully it’s not too much of an infringement of his human rights to dare to say so.

But wait, there’s more.

DRAMA QUEENS
Ashby is also accused of leading a posse of buff, aggressive gay goons in February 2011 who created a noisy and dramatic disturbance at a prominent Sunshine Coast cafe when the owners were having a business dispute of a kind that would otherwise have been easily resolved.

Sources familiar with the situation explain that Ashby was volunteering doing “marketing and media” work for the cafe and that in that capacity he arranged a Facebook page, promotional material and a sign for the business. Initially, in a pattern arguably replicated with Speaker Slipper, he “came on strong” sources say, not only talking a good game but being a quick implementer and problem-solver too. The first impressions those involved with the cafe had – and customers who saw him work behind the bar sometimes – were very positive.

But when it was agreed between the partners that they would go their separate ways, with one departing, potentially leaving no future role for Ashby, he was having none of it, playing a highly divisive, disruptive and trouble-causing role, regularly exacerbating conflict when it was on the verge of resolution.

SERIAL TROUBLE-MAKER
In that destructive effort, those who saw him in action tell VEXNEWS Ashby would regularly threaten litigation against one of the cafe partners, including threats he would arrange massive adverse publicity for the venue and the partner on 60 Minutes, A Current Affair and Today Tonight.

Ashby loudly denounced one of the business partners to patrons, while video-recording the proceedings of the raid and telling all that the disturbance he was recording would “go viral”.

When Ashby conducted what has been described by an eye-witness as his “raid” on the cafe, he was in a highly agitated and confrontational state, even holding up his iPhone to record the target of his enmity and throwing questions at him in a style that might have pleased Martin Di Stasio of Frontline.

It is also claimed Ashby and the goons stole equipment from the venue and helped remove chafing dishes worth over $3000. That criminal act and the misconduct more generally are thought to be the reason the video wasn’t released. Ultimately, the dishes were returned by one of the goons. If we were less respectful of Mr Ashby’s human rights, we might note that taking equipment in these circumstances is almost certainly an offence under the Queensland Criminal Code. It’s stealing.

Customers and witnesses of the dramatic scene were left deeply unimpressed.

VEXNEWS understands these matters were the subject of complaints at the time to Queensland Police in the Sunshine Coast in February 2011, including the concerns about the introduction of unwitting gay men to Ashby’s millionaire mate with HIV. We believe the complaints were added to what is called an “intelligence file.”

ASHBY’S HUMAN RIGHTS JEOPARDISED, HE RECKONS
Last week, VEXNEWS reported widespread rumours that Ashby had been paid money, with the promise of free legals from an expensive high-profile Sydney law firm. Ashby has expressly denied the claims and has even threatened to sue us in relation to the reporting and – we can only hope with a wry chuckle – has even complained that we have breached his human rights with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

We won’t be retracting the story and we wish to make it very clear, there’s much more to come. Much more light to shine in the dark, dank corners of this ugly business.

That’s why, in response to Mr Ashby’s legal threat, we have written an extensive series of questions in relation to the case for him and his lawyer.

We will publish them all (with some redactions) for your reading pleasure, available here shortly. (Unlike Mr Ashby’s lawyers, we’d prefer to send the correspondence to them first)

It is clear that Ashby’s denial that “no external party” is funding his litigation is worthy of much closer scrutiny.

SHOW ME THE MONEY
VEXNEWS understands Mr Ashby is not a wealthy person. We have searched ASIC and other appropriate records to establish the extent of his business activity and wealth. There isn’t much. He hasn’t inherited money or won the lottery. There is talk from former friends that he once won a lawsuit of some kind and that is the source of some assets. We are yet to investigate that speculation and remain sceptical.

Very shortly after getting a job with Speaker Slipper, Ashby purchased a shiny new sports car, complete with personalised plate “ASHBY” despite previously insisting he wasn’t interested in driving a “flash” car. It’s behaviour that suggests he couldn’t previously afford the car but could after he got the moderately-well-paying job with Speaker Slipper. Those familiar with his situation confirm this.

That seems a very long way away from ponying up $600-an-hour for a high-priced Sydney law firm to run what seems to be a highly speculative, potentially career-ruining harassment case from one’s own limited resources. That’s why many people believe there’s much more to this than meets the eye.

Regardless of legal threats and what seems to be a continuation of Ashby’s life of dramatic escalation, confrontation, litigation and media manipulation, we’ll chase this story to the end, alleged human rights abuses notwithstanding.


http://www.vexnews.com/2012/05/life-of-the-party-james-ashby-accused-of-procurin...

Will the mainstream press touch this story?

Wow, I know the Greens are desperate to maintain what little slice of power they currently enjoy, but this takes desperation to an entirely new (and subterranean) level.

Armchair_Politician wrote on May 19^th, 2012 at 11:34am:

The conga line of lying suckholes can see the Ashby "case" falling apart before their eyes. shame on you suckholes for your filthy lies with no reason other than to gain government without an election,you're a disgrace.

skippy. wrote on May 19^th, 2012 at 11:46am:


You mean lies like...

____ wrote on May 19^th, 2012 at 11:52am:


I thought Pyne was gay until I learned that he had a family.

This is going to unravel for the opposition. Why did Ashby go to the opposition before he spoken to anyone else? He works for the government. Who is going to pay his legal bills?

Ashby has a reputation as colourful as Slipper's - and it's obvious who's going to come off worse as Ashby really isn't a person of any consequence. It won't look good for the Coalition either who are so obsessed with bringing the Gillard government down that they've lost perspective of what they're supposed to represent and have become bogged down in gossip and triviality.

This pettiness is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees because of Ashby's pathetic squealing.

So nice try at changing the thread discussion, phony Tonys office skirt, but what do you think of this Ashby now? he looks like the sort you'd defend.

Slipper is going to come out of this witch hunt smelling of roses and will probably regain his seat easily as an independent once its discovered how dirty the Oppositions hands are in this whole affair.