Police confirm complaint against Worth is withdrawn; no charges will be laid
July 3 2009
The Auckland businesswoman who had lodged a police complaint against former Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth has withdrawn it, police have confirmed.
A friend who had helped her lodge the complaint earlier told media that said she now “wanted out” because she felt that the political fallout of the episode that caused Dr Worth to first step down from his ministerial role and then resign as Member of Parliament last month was “punishment enough”. She no longer wanted the matter investigated, he said.
News reports also said that the Police had told the woman that there was no evidence on the bases of which charges could be pressed.
“I said it then and I am saying it now – my conscience has always been clear,” Dr Worth told Indian Weekender today when asked for his reaction to this latest development. He did not wish to comment any further at this stage.
His lawyer, Paul Dacre, later told media that the
former minister was happy with the positive outcome, but now wanted time to
reflect.
Prime Minister John Key has consistently refused to say what exactly it was that made him lose confidence in Dr Worth leading to his resignation from Parliament.
The withdrawal of the complaint precludes the possibility of any charges being laid on Dr Worth, so that premise can no longer be seen as the reason for the Prime Minister to have lost his confidence. In the event that it indeed was, it was clearly misplaced.
The other allegation that followed was the one about Dr Worth sending some 40 controversially worded text messages to Indian Labour Party worker Neelam Chaudary, whose cause party leader Phil Goff had relentlessly championed in a bid to embarrass the ruling party and the Prime Minister.
In that case, too, Chaudary, a Labour Party stalwart whose husband is a convicted immigration fraudster, refused to reveal the actual content of the texts, much less press any charges against Dr Worth. That pulled the rug from under Mr Goff’s feet. He later said that Labour would drop the campaign after Dr Worth had resigned.
So, with one case of withdrawn complaint and one in which the supposedly aggrieved person refused to divulge the contents of the two way communications to support her allegations, it is hard for anybody to know why Dr Worth lost the Prime Minister’s confidence.
Dr Worth has been closely associated with the Kiwi Indian community over several years and has been respected by a large section of the community. Earlier, as reported in Indian Weekender, several Indian community leaders had expressed surprise at the action taken on Dr Worth before any charges were brought against him. He has been widely seen as the fall guy in the unseemly political stoush unleashed by Labour to embarrass National.
While maintaining his innocence throughout, Dr Worth had said, had no choice but to resign from Parliament because of the "avalanche of rumour and innuendo" surrounding him.
A friend who had helped her lodge the complaint earlier told media that said she now “wanted out” because she felt that the political fallout of the episode that caused Dr Worth to first step down from his ministerial role and then resign as Member of Parliament last month was “punishment enough”. She no longer wanted the matter investigated, he said.
News reports also said that the Police had told the woman that there was no evidence on the bases of which charges could be pressed.
“I said it then and I am saying it now – my conscience has always been clear,” Dr Worth told Indian Weekender today when asked for his reaction to this latest development. He did not wish to comment any further at this stage.
His lawyer, Paul Dacre, later told media that the
former minister was happy with the positive outcome, but now wanted time to
reflect.
Prime Minister John Key has consistently refused to say what exactly it was that made him lose confidence in Dr Worth leading to his resignation from Parliament.
The withdrawal of the complaint precludes the possibility of any charges being laid on Dr Worth, so that premise can no longer be seen as the reason for the Prime Minister to have lost his confidence. In the event that it indeed was, it was clearly misplaced.
The other allegation that followed was the one about Dr Worth sending some 40 controversially worded text messages to Indian Labour Party worker Neelam Chaudary, whose cause party leader Phil Goff had relentlessly championed in a bid to embarrass the ruling party and the Prime Minister.
In that case, too, Chaudary, a Labour Party stalwart whose husband is a convicted immigration fraudster, refused to reveal the actual content of the texts, much less press any charges against Dr Worth. That pulled the rug from under Mr Goff’s feet. He later said that Labour would drop the campaign after Dr Worth had resigned.
So, with one case of withdrawn complaint and one in which the supposedly aggrieved person refused to divulge the contents of the two way communications to support her allegations, it is hard for anybody to know why Dr Worth lost the Prime Minister’s confidence.
Dr Worth has been closely associated with the Kiwi Indian community over several years and has been respected by a large section of the community. Earlier, as reported in Indian Weekender, several Indian community leaders had expressed surprise at the action taken on Dr Worth before any charges were brought against him. He has been widely seen as the fall guy in the unseemly political stoush unleashed by Labour to embarrass National.
While maintaining his innocence throughout, Dr Worth had said, had no choice but to resign from Parliament because of the "avalanche of rumour and innuendo" surrounding him.
The Auckland businesswoman who had lodged a police complaint against former Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth has withdrawn it, police have confirmed.A friend who had helped her lodge the complaint earlier told media that said she now “wanted out” because she felt that the political fallout...
The Auckland businesswoman who had lodged a police complaint against former Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth has withdrawn it, police have confirmed.
A friend who had helped her lodge the complaint earlier told media that said she now “wanted out” because she felt that the political fallout of the episode that caused Dr Worth to first step down from his ministerial role and then resign as Member of Parliament last month was “punishment enough”. She no longer wanted the matter investigated, he said.
News reports also said that the Police had told the woman that there was no evidence on the bases of which charges could be pressed.
“I said it then and I am saying it now – my conscience has always been clear,” Dr Worth told Indian Weekender today when asked for his reaction to this latest development. He did not wish to comment any further at this stage.
His lawyer, Paul Dacre, later told media that the
former minister was happy with the positive outcome, but now wanted time to
reflect.
Prime Minister John Key has consistently refused to say what exactly it was that made him lose confidence in Dr Worth leading to his resignation from Parliament.
The withdrawal of the complaint precludes the possibility of any charges being laid on Dr Worth, so that premise can no longer be seen as the reason for the Prime Minister to have lost his confidence. In the event that it indeed was, it was clearly misplaced.
The other allegation that followed was the one about Dr Worth sending some 40 controversially worded text messages to Indian Labour Party worker Neelam Chaudary, whose cause party leader Phil Goff had relentlessly championed in a bid to embarrass the ruling party and the Prime Minister.
In that case, too, Chaudary, a Labour Party stalwart whose husband is a convicted immigration fraudster, refused to reveal the actual content of the texts, much less press any charges against Dr Worth. That pulled the rug from under Mr Goff’s feet. He later said that Labour would drop the campaign after Dr Worth had resigned.
So, with one case of withdrawn complaint and one in which the supposedly aggrieved person refused to divulge the contents of the two way communications to support her allegations, it is hard for anybody to know why Dr Worth lost the Prime Minister’s confidence.
Dr Worth has been closely associated with the Kiwi Indian community over several years and has been respected by a large section of the community. Earlier, as reported in Indian Weekender, several Indian community leaders had expressed surprise at the action taken on Dr Worth before any charges were brought against him. He has been widely seen as the fall guy in the unseemly political stoush unleashed by Labour to embarrass National.
While maintaining his innocence throughout, Dr Worth had said, had no choice but to resign from Parliament because of the "avalanche of rumour and innuendo" surrounding him.
A friend who had helped her lodge the complaint earlier told media that said she now “wanted out” because she felt that the political fallout of the episode that caused Dr Worth to first step down from his ministerial role and then resign as Member of Parliament last month was “punishment enough”. She no longer wanted the matter investigated, he said.
News reports also said that the Police had told the woman that there was no evidence on the bases of which charges could be pressed.
“I said it then and I am saying it now – my conscience has always been clear,” Dr Worth told Indian Weekender today when asked for his reaction to this latest development. He did not wish to comment any further at this stage.
His lawyer, Paul Dacre, later told media that the
former minister was happy with the positive outcome, but now wanted time to
reflect.
Prime Minister John Key has consistently refused to say what exactly it was that made him lose confidence in Dr Worth leading to his resignation from Parliament.
The withdrawal of the complaint precludes the possibility of any charges being laid on Dr Worth, so that premise can no longer be seen as the reason for the Prime Minister to have lost his confidence. In the event that it indeed was, it was clearly misplaced.
The other allegation that followed was the one about Dr Worth sending some 40 controversially worded text messages to Indian Labour Party worker Neelam Chaudary, whose cause party leader Phil Goff had relentlessly championed in a bid to embarrass the ruling party and the Prime Minister.
In that case, too, Chaudary, a Labour Party stalwart whose husband is a convicted immigration fraudster, refused to reveal the actual content of the texts, much less press any charges against Dr Worth. That pulled the rug from under Mr Goff’s feet. He later said that Labour would drop the campaign after Dr Worth had resigned.
So, with one case of withdrawn complaint and one in which the supposedly aggrieved person refused to divulge the contents of the two way communications to support her allegations, it is hard for anybody to know why Dr Worth lost the Prime Minister’s confidence.
Dr Worth has been closely associated with the Kiwi Indian community over several years and has been respected by a large section of the community. Earlier, as reported in Indian Weekender, several Indian community leaders had expressed surprise at the action taken on Dr Worth before any charges were brought against him. He has been widely seen as the fall guy in the unseemly political stoush unleashed by Labour to embarrass National.
While maintaining his innocence throughout, Dr Worth had said, had no choice but to resign from Parliament because of the "avalanche of rumour and innuendo" surrounding him.
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