An unremarkable courtroom at Burwood was the scene of the reunion of Salim Mehajer and his former wife Aysha Learmonth, who both first burst onto the national scene with their wedding that featured thousands of flowers, helicopters and luxury cars that helped shut down a Sydney street.
Now, she claimed to be so scared of him she asked to give evidence from the safety of a police station. So anxious, she didn’t even want police to know where she lived.
Meanwhile Mehajer sat in the dock a few feet away from security guards who separated him from the public.
Back in 2015, theirs was the self-proclaimed wedding of the year — but this week the former lovers could barely look at each other as each tried to convince a magistrate they were telling the truth.
In both instances each was accused of sending a message to the other. One was an alleged veiled threat, the other a declaration of love.
Mehajer, 31, fronted court on Monday for the first of a marathon week of matters he had in various courts. He was at Burwood Local Court to answer charges that he breached an apprehended violence order taken on Ms Learmonth’s behalf by police.
He was accused of breaching the order by sending her a message through Instagram, and also of lurking in his Audi in a laneway near her home.
Mehajer denied the charges. Through his barrister Geoffrey Foster, he made it clear what he thinks of his former wife.
“My client’s view is this is nothing more than the alleged victim grandstanding and trying to demonstrate her self-importance — she’s nothing more than a drama queen,” Mr Foster said.
They opposed her bid to give evidence from a police station via video link. Ms Learmonth produced a doctor’s letter stating being in the same room as Mehajer would jeopardise her mental health.
Mr Foster told the court: “My client is here today because of allegations made by this person to what she says happened so she should be here … He is asking this court to properly assess her credibility — her credibility is a major, major factor in this case.”
The application was granted by Magistrate Jacqueline Trad and Ms Learmonth returned serve when she gave her evidence.
Wearing a navy jacket, white blouse and her hair pulled back, she calmly told the court from the screen opposite Mehajer in the dock that she was “most definitely not” still in love with him.
Mehajer kept his head down looking at papers he was holding while Ms Learmonth spoke of having no feelings for him.
She said she had been bombarded with “400 emails” from him since their split and she believed there were telltale signs in the Instagram message that left her in no doubt it was from him.
“Salim himself” had told her many times the same message. “That he realised the person he had become and that he was a changed person,” she told the court. She’d heard it all, “numerous” times, she said.
She denied having any contact with him after June or July 2016. The court was told an email from her hotmail account in July 2017 told Mehajer told him she was “ready to come back to you”.
Ms Learmonth denied writing the letter. And Mehajer denied writing the Instagram message, insisting his account was hacked.
Mehajer could barely look at his former wife, but when he did glance up in her direction it was to smile as his barrister intensified his questions around the email, including getting her to concede it “appear so” that she sent the email.
Mr Foster accused her of being a liar and being set on “blackening” his name as much as she could.
“I’ve no need to do that,” she shot back.
Her belief was the email in question was used by Mehajer as part of a previous bail application.
“I do think this email helped in his bail application to leave the county. He was trying to say we were together when in fact we were not,” she said.
Mehajer smirked from the dock as her words came over the speaker.
Mr Foster questioned Ms Learmonth about her Instagram account she had reactivated — that boasted 50,000 followers — and suggested “mostly” all of them were there because of her association with Mehajer.
“I’m sure at least one, yes,” she said with a slight smile, as Mehajer leaned back and beamed.
The following day, Mehajer was back in court for a separate hearing relating to alleged AVO breaches on November 20. In this instance he was accused of lurking near Ms Learmonth’s south Sydney home in his Audi and also of driving dangerously after a minor collision with a car driven by a friend of Ms Learmonth’s.
Mr Foster, on Mehajer’s behalf, suggested to the driver, Rouba Soueid, that she had joined forces with Ms Learmonth to set him up. He went even further, alleging she had been infatuated with him.
“I wasn’t upset because that didn’t happen,” she said. “I have no reason to get back at Mr Mehajer ... there’s no motive to be upset or get him back,” she said.
Both AVO matters were adjourned until April and July. But that was just half of Mehajer’s week in court.
On Wednesday he was back before Burwood Local Court for a mention of his charges relating to the alleged staging of a car crash last October.
He found himself with even more charges. A second perverting the course of justice charge was laid, as were two charges of possession and one supply charge of prohibited drugs including oxycodone and anti-anxiety and heavy-duty painkillers.
Oxycodone is otherwise known as “hillbilly heroin”. The drugs were allegedly found in his Lidcombe home in November while police were searching for evidence relating to the car crash.
The perverting the course of justice charge arose after he allegedly misled Burwood Local Court during a bail application — ironically as he argued to be released on a perverting the course of justice charge.
The court was told technical and industrial problems prevented the video link between Burwood and Silverwater jail, so his matter was adjourned to June 6.
To recap, that’s three separate hearings on charges relating to a number of different charges, different magistrates, prosecutors and even defence lawyers.
Then there was Thursday and his fourth shot at freedom when a bail application was heard by Justice Desmond Fagan in the Supreme Court. Prosecutors alleged Mehajer was a flight risk if he was released, but Justice Fagan agreed to release him despite the businessman being “his own worst enemy” and his behaviour “extremely erratic”.
He dismissed prosecutors’ concerns there was a plane waiting for Mehajer in Queensland. This was raised after prosecutor Rossi Kotsis said a letter was intercepted before it reached him in jail saying there was a plane for him in Queensland.
Justice Fagan suggested Mehajer’s history showed a “snowballing of idiocy” but said the Crown had an unduly pessimistic and alarmist view of him based on his ability to “talk himself up”.
As Mehajer waited for the bail decision to be delivered, AAP reports he clutched wooden beads and briefly held a piece of paper with “love you” written on it up to the AVL camera for his family to see.
Then, after two months behind bars, Mehajer heard the words he’d been waiting to hear. He would be allowed to go home, albeit with a $200,000 surety and strict bail conditions
Given the Easter weekend holiday Mehajer will probably have to wait until Tuesday before he is allowed to return home.
The bail decision caps off a dramatic week where personal details have been aired and serious new charges laid. Court appearance after court appearance, and headlines not even he would want to be associated with.
But with any trial on the perverting the course of justice not likely until late 2019, it is a life Mehajer will have to get used to.
—additional reporting: AAP
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