Bathurst businessman Darryl Leahey says he is author of Jacqui Rudge 'poison pen' letter

Darryl Leahey, a close friend and sometime employer of Cr Bobby Bourke - and the campaign manager for "Team Bourke" at the 2017 council election - says he is the person who anonymously wrote to Cr Rudge in March 2020 urging her to resign from Bathurst Regional Council or risk having her previous battles with mental health made public.

Rather than be cowed by the letter, though, Cr Rudge went public with her story through an interview with the Western Advocate.

Her story sparked outrage throughout the community and Cr Rudge garnered widespread support for opening up about her mental health battles.

The letter became the subject of a story on ABC-TV's 7.30 Report in July this year which suggested Cr Bourke had played a major role in an alleged blackmail attempt on Cr Rudge.

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Cr Bourke "wholly denied" the blackmail allegation but resigned as mayor in the days following the report "in the best interests of the people of the Bathurst region and all concerned".

Cr Bourke, who said he regularly worked for Mr Leahey, conceded he had been asked by Mr Leahey to mail the letter to Cr Rudge but said he did not read it and had no idea of what it said.

He said he often mailed parcels and letters for Mr Leahey's business interests.

Mr Leahey told the Western Advocate he had sent the letter to Cr Rudge out of genuine concern for her wellbeing as he believed she was struggling under the pressure of being a councillor.

He said she had stopped communicating with him some time after being elected to council as the number two on Cr Bourke's ticket.

The breakdown of her relationship with Team Bourke culminated in her voting for Cr Jess Jennings over Cr Bourke at the mayoral election September 2019, an election ultimately won by Cr Bourke.

Mr Leahey said he had been very busy and under stress at the time he had written the letter to Cr Rudge and had not considered at the time that sending it anonymously was a big deal.

However, he conceded to the Western Advocate it may have been better for him to put his name to the letter.

"Firstly let me unreservedly apologise for any personal hurt and pain caused by my actions towards Cr Rudge," Mr Leahey said in a written statement provided to the Western Advocate.

"I want to place on the record some facts so that the public knows what transpired over these events.

"I want to do this because Cr Rudge and the ABC and other media have misrepresented the facts and not disclosed what they knew about me and my involvement.

"From the timing of the ABC story, I can only assume that their actions were wholly politically motivated as an election campaign strategy."

Mr Leahey says the 7.30 Report knew he had written the letter but believes they did not name him in their story because it "did not suit their narrative".

He said the timing of the story, two months before the council elections were due to go ahead in September this year (later postponed to December due to the COVID-19 pandemic), indicated that it was politically motivated and he said the report "was to shame Bobby Bourke".

"Again I apologise if any hurt but stand by my comments that Cr Rudge was unfit to represent our community and should seek help, which she has," he said.

The Western Advocate put a series of questions to the 7.30 Report regarding Mr Leahey's claims against the program.

The newspaper received a written response saying 7.30 had "sought a response from Darryl Leahey for that question [of whether he was the author of the letter], but none was forthcoming".

"Furthermore, 7.30 did not state that Cr Bourke wrote the alleged blackmail letter," the response read.

The Western Advocate also approached Cr Rudge for comment but she declined to say anything on the matter at this stage.

The Western Advocate has been told a police investigation into the letter to Cr Rudge remains open and a police spokesperson said a brief had been sent to the Department of Public Prosecutions for review.

Mr Leahey confirmed he had spoken to police as part of their inquiries.

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