A married father of three has been outed as the man who used a fake identity to leak an email to Pauline Hanson alerting her to “dodgy” vote counting by NSW Electoral Commission staff.
In a bizarre twist to the former One Nation leader’s appeal against her loss in the March state election, the case was urgently resumed yesterday as former history teacher Sean Castle, from Glendenning, in Sydney’s west, came forward to admit he had been posing as a man called Michael Rattner all along.
Michael Rattner was nominated in court as the man who leaked an email to Ms Hanson mentioning “dodgy electoral staff” wrongly placing 1200 votes cast in her favour in a blank ballot pile. But he did not appear in court on Wednesday as required, leading Justice Peter McClellan to issue a warrant to bring him in to give evidence.
“I have represented myself as being Michael Rattner,” Mr Castle said yesterday.
“Firstly, I sincerely apologise to the Supreme Court for my conduct in not attending the court on the 8th of June.
“I’ve given an undertaking today to the court that I will attend any further hearings as required by the court until excused by Your Honour.”
Source: It wasn’t him, it was me, admits man behind Pauline Hanson email leak | thetelegraph.com.au.