Malcolm Turnbull has refused to endorse the Liberal mayor of Waverley to continue in her position after she wrote a reference for a convicted rapist asking for him to get a non-custodial sentence.
Sally Betts, who has been a member of the eastern Sydney council for 17 years and mayor for three, wrote a reference for Luke Lazarus, the son of a Sydney nightclub owner, after he was convicted of the rape in 2013 of an 18-year-old woman.
Betts said in the reference the conviction was “inconsistent with the gentle well-mannered and respectful young man that I know” and she had no hesitation supporting Lazarus and his family. She has since faced pressure within the council and Waverley community to resign. The local newspaper, the Wentworth Courier, reported it has been “inundated” with letters calling for Betts to resign or be sacked.
A Liberal council party room meeting on Friday last week endorsed Betts as the mayor but there is a separate council investigation into whether she broke the councillor code of conduct.
In addition to being the mayor of Waverley, Betts works for Turnbull, whose electorate takes in her council area. Asked if Betts had Turnbull’s support as mayor, his office declined to respond to the question and would not say if she faced any disciplinary action over the reference.
The only comment offered was “Sally is an electorate officer (part time)”.
Betts would not respond to Guardian Australia’s phone calls but told the Wentworth Courier she did nothing wrong.
“Of course I knew there was a chance I’d take a hit for this,” she said when defending the reference, citing her experiences working with young offenders in her decision to ask for a non-custodial sentence.
“… There is no question he should be punished. What he did was despicable. The issue was the sentence. Some non-custodial sentences where the offender has to face the public admitting their offence as part of an education program can be powerful and constructive.”
Lazarus’s father, Andrew – a part owner of Soho Bar in Potts Point and the Eastern in Bondi Junction – also provided a reference for Lazarus, along with other high-profile figures such as the honorary secretary of the honorary consulate general of Greece in Brisbane, Tsambico Athanasas, South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club chairman Nick Pappas , and parish priest at the Greek Orthodox church of St George in Rose Bay, Father Gerasimos Koutsouras.
Lazarus was jailed for a minimum of three years this month for what the judge described as a “particularly degrading” sexual assault.
The court heard the victim was out clubbing in Kings Cross for the first time and went with her friend to Soho Bar where Lazarus approached her on the dance floor and told her he owned the club, then invited her to a VIP section.
Instead, he led her through a door to an alleyway where the pair started kissing. When the victim told Lazarus she wanted to go back to her friend he pulled down her skirt and told her to get down on her hands and knees and “arch her back” before he anally raped her.
During the assault the girl told Lazarus she was a virgin and a text from Lazarus’s phone the next morning showed he texted a friend: “sick night, took a chick’s virginity LOL so tight”.
Lazarus also told the girl to add her name to a list of names in his phone before she left the alleyway.
Pru Goward, the New South Wales minister for the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, has criticised Lazarus’s referees, saying they could discourage other rape victims from coming forward. She was rebuffed by the NSW Bar Association which warned her against “interfering with the proper administration of justice”.
The NSW Bar Association declined to comment on the potential repercussions of Betts losing the mayoralty over taking part in a legal process but in previous statements on the case, the junior vice-president of the association, Arthur Moses, has said the public should be able to provide references in a criminal sentencing hearing.
“No member of the community should be deterred from providing evidence in a criminal matter. In certain circumstances it may constitute a contempt of court to humiliate or victimise individuals for being witnesses,” he told Fairfax Media.
