Police have charged a man for allegedly threatening to kill former political staffer Brittany Higgins, her fiance and their dog.
NSW Police say detectives from the Terrorism Investigation Squad were alerted in February “after receiving information about threats of violence made through a social media platform in relation to participants of a mass gathering”.
A 49-year-old man was arrested by detectives at Tweed Heads Police Station on Wednesday.
Detectives served the man with firearms and weapons prohibition orders and searched his car and home at Banora Point.
The man was charged with using a carriage service to make a death threat and using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend.
He has been granted strict conditional bail and will appear at Tweed Heads Local Court on Wednesday.
“There is no current or impending threat to the community as a result of this operational activity,” police said.
While the target of the threats was not revealed by police, multiple media reports say Ms Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz are the victims.
NSW Police say they cannot identify the victims of crime.
“Detectives uncovered a total of 49 messages with similar threats or offensive content sent from a number of accounts, which were believed to be linked,” police said in a statement on Thursday.
“One of the accounts was also linked to messages sent on social media to a man in the ACT, allegedly threatening to kill the man, his partner, and their pet dog.”
Ms Higgins has received a barrage of abuse on social media after going public with allegations that she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House in 2019 when she was working for Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.
In 2021, former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann was charged with the sexual assault of Ms Higgins and pleaded not guilty.
The trial in the ACT Supreme Court trial last October was derailed due to juror misconduct.
The charges against him were later dropped because of concerns about the impact of a second trial on Ms Higgins’ mental health.
Mr Lehrmann denies the allegation he raped Ms Higgins.
– with AAP
