Blackmail allegations against a former South Australian Labour MP and her spouse were dropped.
Greg Digance and Annabel Digance have both previously entered not guilty pleas to charges relating to their behaviour against Premier Peter Malinauskas when he was the leader of the opposition.
The director of public prosecutions withdrew the charges against the pair at a hearing on Friday in exchange for their consent to a number of secretive directives.
They were said to have clauses stipulating they weren’t to speak to the premier again.
Malinauskas claimed in a statement following the hearing that the outcome was one he had always desired.
I’m especially happy that this issue has been handled, he stated.
“I’ve always wanted Mr. and Mrs. Digance to just leave me alone. It’s the result I’ve desired from the very beginning.
At their house in Strathalbyn, south of Adelaide, Ms. Digance and her husband were both taken into custody in April 2021.
At the time, police warned that if they threatened to level accusations of misbehaviour against the then-opposition leader, it would be claimed that they were working together to pursue personal advantage.
It was assumed that the advantage comprised putting Ms. Digance in a winnable position on the Labour Party’s slate for the Legislative Council or selecting her for a safe Labour seat in advance of the 2022 election.
The former MP contended that any threats made were within the so-called “political exception” to blackmail legislation, which protected “negotiations” to obtain a political advantage, in a previous appeal to have the case dismissed.
She further argued that the timing of her and her husband’s arrests—nearly a year after the alleged offenses—was done so as to thwart a parliamentary investigation into bullying and intimidation in the Labour Party.
These defences were rejected, and the two were ordered to appear in court for a trial that was set to begin the following month.
Ms. Digance represented Elder in the lower house of the SA parliament from 2014 to 2018, however she was defeated by the Liberals in the subsequent state election.
She also ran for the upper house as an independent in the 2022 election, however she was not successful in getting a seat.
