Moira Deeming’s future in the Victorian Liberal Party is uncertain following the party’s decision to hold a new preselection after the candidate who defeated her was ruled ineligible for giving a character reference to a convicted child sex offender.
The debacle has thrown the party into turmoil, prompting a group of Liberal State Council members to call for the immediate resignation of Victorian Liberal president Philip Davis and vice presidents Holly Byrne, Cathrine Burnett-Wake, Trent Sullivan and Geoff Gledhill.
Under the party’s constitution, Ms Deeming continues to be a candidate for top spot on the Western Metropolitan upper house ticket, after receiving 29 votes to Dinesh Gourisetty’s 37.
But the party could simply have endorsed her as its candidate for the first position on the Liberal Party’s group voting ticket for the Western Metropolitan Region, and has chosen not to.
It is not clear what action the MP, who has previously spoken of her own sexual assault as a child, will take, having been deeply traumatised by the party’s rejection of her on Sunday in favour of a man who had provided a positive character reference for a pedophile.
In the reference letter, Mr Gourisetty said he had known Patel for nearly four years. “He is a good friend of mine. I understand that Mr Kashyap Patel has to attend court about child grooming and sexual assault charges,” he wrote. “He is very upset about the charges and I truly believe he is extremely sorry to the complainant for what he has done.”
“Even though he has been charged, I would continue to trust him as my friend. Finally, I can say that in all the time I have known him, Mr Kashyap Patel has been a decent, hardworking and trustworthy person. I believe any behaviour he displayed that caused him to be charged with child grooming and sexual assault was a one-off event.”
Patel was convicted in September 2024 and sentenced to nine months imprisonment and a two year community correction order.
County Court Judge Peter Rozen KC found that in the full knowledge of his victim’s age, Patel had connected with her via an anonymous chatting app called Antiland and asked her to meet him after school for sex, telling her he would bring protection.
He also persuaded the child to send him three sexually explicit photos of herself, having told her he could use the images to obtain contacts for escorting.
Patel told the girl he wanted to masturbate in front of her and encouraged her to do the same.
Despite being told she was not interested, he asked her if she wanted to work in brothels and told her she could make a lot of money if she was prepared to perform certain sexual services.
Judge Rozen found Patel was a “man of otherwise good character as set out in the three character references filed with the court.”
It comes as the Supreme Court battle over the party’s $1.55m loan to Mr Pesutto to pay his legal bills for defaming Ms Deeming escalates, with both sides launching appeals over access to sensitive financial documents and the identities of guarantors.
A five-day trial, brought by a rebel faction of Liberal members opposed to the loan to the former opposition leader, had been due to begin last week. Instead, it was vacated by consent amid a dispute over whether the guarantors’ identities should be revealed and a push by the plaintiffs for access to internal party documents.
Former Liberal MP and Pesutto chief of staff Louise Staley meanwhile took to Instagram to gloat over Ms Deeming’s loss, posting an image of the MP walking out of Liberal headquarters on Sunday with the caption “Happy Days” and the Lily Allen Song “F — k you very much” playing.
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