How disgraced deputy mayor Salim Mehajer allegedly pressured his glamorous ex-girlfriend to drop domestic violence charges from behind bars
- Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer charged with breaching an AVO
- The order was granted December 23 to protect his ex-girlfriend Melissa Tysoe
- Police allege he used his sister to try to coerce Ms Tysoe to drop assault charges
New details have emerged about how Salim Mehajer allegedly breached an AVO from behind bars that was taken out to protect his ex-girlfriend.
The former deputy mayor of Auburn in Sydney allegedly gave ‘instructions’ to his sister in a phone call to ask 31-year-old Melissa Tysoe to drop domestic violence allegations against him.
Mehajer, 34, denies he breached the AVO, granted after Ms Tysoe claimed he had assaulted and threatened her, claiming his sister acted on her own, reports The Daily Telegraph.
Salim Mehajer (left) is charged with breaching an AVO to protect Melissa Tysoe (right)
The couple began a relationship in 2018 but have since split with Ms Tysoe alleging Mehajer assaulted her
Police are investigating Ms Tysoe’s claims and no charges have been pressed over the matter, but a provisional AVO was granted on December 23 preventing Mehajer from contacting her unless via a lawyer.
Police allege Mehajer, who was already in jail for convictions over a different matter, disregarded the order within a week by phoning his sister and asking her to talk to Ms Tysoe on his behalf.
He appeared in court for a bail application on Thursday via videolink from Metropolitan Remand Centre but this was abandoned in favour of a District Court bail hearing on January 18.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Karlo Haralovic said police will allege Mehajer gave his sister specific instructions on what to say to Ms Tysoe.
The glamorous Ms Tysoe in a picture from her Instagram account
‘It was not just an ordinary off-the-cuff phone call or text … He’s using a third party, in essence, to breach and has breached the AVO, we say,’ he told the court.
Police are yet to trawl through Mehajer’s taped phone conversations from jail, the court heard.
However, he said the officer handling the investigation would testify that on December 29 Mehajer’s sister admitted she received the instructions, saying: ‘He asked me to ask her to drop the AVO and why she did this.’
Mehejer’s defence lawyer, Ruth Chalmers, said the alleged breach of the AVO resulted from a person acting of their own accord who did not realise they were not supposed to interfere.
‘I don’t know man, he was saying all this stuff about loving you. I felt sorry for him,’ a text allegedly sent by his sister to Ms Tysoe read, according to police facts.
Prosecutors allege Mehajer phoned his sister from jail and asked her to ask Ms Tysoe to drop the allegations against him
Ms Chalmers said text appeared to show someone with their own motivations and claimed nothing in the police facts proved that her client knew the conversatrion would take place.
The prosecution said Mahajer, who is charged with one count of contravening a specific order, knew well the conditions of the order – having been twice previously convicted on breaching an AVO.
The matter will return to Parramatta Local Court on January 22.
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