Slam dunk!

Jevan Goulter and his rag-tag band of supporters/trouble-makers ought to have got a message today; don't mess with Michael Laws. We blogged earlier in the day about at the trouble at t'mill; this afternoon Laws has retaken the offensive. He's issued a statement which begins:

26 August 2010

MEDIA RELEASE

MICHAEL LAWS MAYOR WANGANUI DISTRICT COUNCIL

Mayor Laws: There is campaign of harassment against my family, friends

In all my 25 years of local and national political experience, I have not come across such a despicable, dirty and probably illegal smear campaign - as that currently being practised against myself, my family and my friends.

It has become so vicious and so low that my five year old daughter has been drawn into the political stunts and games of these people.

It has also seen one of the culprits boast publicly on her Facebook site that she has illegally hacked my e-mail account - a boast made on 1 August (evidence enclosed).

It has seen another of the culprits offer for sale, to a newspaper, the private texts and e-mails between myself and an Auckland lady (evidence enclosed).

Yesterday, I laid an official complaint with the Police against two of those persons involved - Hamish Jevan Goulter and Barbara Ann Osborne. The details of that complaint are attached to this statement, along with the verifying evidence.

Regular readers of Keeping Stock will understand that we are not blind followers of Michael Laws, and in fact Keeping Stock campaigned against his bid for a second term as Mayor of Wanganui. We have however come to respect some of his decisions, and we wholeheartedly supported the move to ban gang patches in Wanganui, where the mayor and the local MP, Chester Borrows worked collaboratively to achieve a local solution. In all probability, we would have voted for Laws had he stood again this year.

However we support him 100% on this matter, hence this post. Laws is right to front-foot it against those who seek to attack him through his family. How that took place is set out in the complaint which he has laid with the police.

And to help the police in their investigations, Laws has provided evidence in support of his allegations. This evidence includes an e-mail from a journalist at the local paper alleging that Goulter offered to sell the Wanganui Chronicle details of correspondence between Laws and another person, and Facebook transmissions where Barbara Osborne admits to hacking Laws' Facebook page.

Michael Laws has effectively slam-dunked Jevan Goulter's mayoral and council campaign, and for that we should be grateful. If Goulter has one shred of integrity, he should immediately withdraw his nominations, apologise to all and sundry, and bugger off back to Wellington. We won't however hold our breath.