The environmental activist Ben Pennings says covert surveillance of his family members by a private investigator – hired by the mining giant Adani – continues to cause “concern” and “anxiety”, according to a letter requesting the company hand over and destroy any photographs of them.
Guardian Australia revealed in 2020 that a private investigator working for Adani took photographs of Pennings walking his nine-year-old daughter to school.
Court documents detailed how the investigator also surveilled Pennings’ wife, trawled her Facebook page and followed her to work at a Brisbane psychology practice.
Adani is suing Pennings, as the national spokesperson of the group Galilee Blockade, alleging he sought to disrupt the operations of the Carmichael coalmine, its suppliers and contractors. That case is ongoing.
Before launching the civil action against the activist, the Indian conglomerate unsuccessfully sought an Anton Piller order to conduct an unannounced search of Pennings’ family home.
The surveillance photographs and an affidavit from a private investigator were tendered to the Queensland supreme court for the ex parte search order application, which was rejected. An appeal by Adani was also unsuccessful.
In separate letters sent to Adani last week and seen by Guardian Australia, Pennings and his wife say the photographs are of “no bearing to current proceedings”, as the Anton Piller application has concluded. They have requested the photographs be handed over, and then deleted from any records.
“I was both panic-stricken and furious when I discovered that Adani hired burly security contractors from the war in Afghanistan to secretly follow and photograph my nine-year-old daughter. Two years later I’m still creeped out,” Pennings says in his letter to Adani.
“It is upsetting to me and my extended family that, despite it having no bearing on current proceedings, photographs of a nine-year-old girl taken without her consent are still being stashed away by Adani or their representatives.
“My eldest daughter was 20 when representatives of Adani were following and photographing her little sister. Two years later she still experiences anxiety that she is also being followed, photographed and otherwise investigated.”
Pennings said none of his children were party to legal proceedings against him and that they “should not have to suffer concern or anxiety that photographs taken without their consent are being held by a company dragging their father through harrowing litigation in the supreme court.”
He says any photographs of his daughter taken at or near her Brisbane primary school could include other students, and that these should be relinquished to the school.
Pennings’ wife, a psychologist, has requested any photographs of herself, her children and possible clients taken near her practice be relinquished.
“I felt physically sick when Ben told me that men hired by Adani had been following our nine-year-old daughter around, taking photographs of her without her consent,” she wrote to the company.
“I still don’t know how many days or weeks she was secretly followed and how many photographs of her were taken.
“I also do not know whether you followed and photographed my two teenagers on their way to school or other activities. Like them, I have nothing to do with the proceedings against my husband. Yet Adani also hired men to follow me to my psychology practice, potentially compromising client confidentiality.
“This was clearly done to intimidate me and my children and you’ve certainly succeeded.”
On Monday Adani said the matter “relates to documents in the ongoing civil litigation between Adani and Mr Pennings”.
“We have instructed our solicitors to contact Mr Pennings’ legal representatives, which is the appropriate course of action,” the company said.
“As the civil litigation is ongoing, we have no further comment at this time.”
