Pauline Hanson fraudster Sean Castle admits deception

PAULINE Hanson is devastated after the man who led her to believe she was robbed of votes in the recent NSW election admitted in court that the evidence she based her case on is untrue. 
 
The former One Nation leader buried her head in her hands as Sean Castle, a Sydney teacher and father of three from Glendenning, in Sydney's west, made the admission in the NSW Supreme Court this evening.
Ms Hanson, who unsuccessfully ran as an independent for the upper house in the March 26 poll, had contested the election result in court.

Her case was based on an alleged email exchange between NSW Election Commission staff saying 1200 votes in her favour were put into a pile of blank ballots.

The email exchange was provided to her by a person named as Michael Rattner, which Mr Castle last week admitted in court was in fact himself.

"I am absolutely devastated," Ms Hanson told reporters outside the court.

"I think this is a terrible hoax. It was so vicious, it really was vicious."
When Mr Castle appeared in court today he was questioned by Ms Hanson's barrister, Peter Lowe.
Mr Lowe asked him: "You did not obtain those emails from someone in the Electoral Commission?"

Mr Castle responded: "No."
Mr Lowe said: "Does that email have any truth to it?"
Mr Castle said: "No."

Ms Hanson said she had given her legal team the go ahead to shut down her case once Mr Castle agreed in court that he had authored the email and that staff at the election commission were not involved.

She faces the prospect of being liable for a massive legal bill if ordered to pay the costs of the Electoral Commission and two upper house MPs, who had risked losing their places if she had been successful.

"I needed closure, the public needed closure," Ms Hanson said.
After Mr Castle gave evidence, barristers representing the commission, upper house Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham and Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell indicated they would pursue Ms Hanson over their clients' costs.
Ms Hanson said she had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal bills.

"I don't know whether I'm looking down the barrel of the costs of the Electoral Commission and the other two councillors," she said.
She still wants to know why Mr Castle did what he did.

"I would have liked the question asked of him why did he do it," Ms Hanson said.
"Why did he do it to me, why did he do it to the people of this state. Why the lies."
In court today Mr Castle was granted protection from prosecution before being compelled to answer questions relating to the purported email.

Earlier, Mr Castle also admitted in court to never knowing anyone who worked for the commission.