RUSSELL AUBREY raises a fist and pretends to strike the boardroom table in anger, his wild eyes centimetres from my face.

The display is intimidating, as he re-enacts a meeting with councillor Nick Pazolli that spiralled out of control last year. After the confrontation he sought unsuccessfully to get a violence restraining order against Cr Pazolli.

“I would never believe that anyone could do that,” the mayor says of the Applecross/Mt Pleasant councillor’s behaviour.

Incredible force

Referring to the “incredible force” Cr Pazolli allegedly used on the table, and which the mayor demonstrated in court, he says he did not move during the barrage but the outburst had left him so shaken he could recall only bare details of what was said at the May 24 meeting.

Indeed, Mr Aubrey’s testimony was found wanting by magistrate Greg Smith: Cr Pazolli had secretly recorded the meeting and what was played back to the court differed markedly from what he had testified to.

“He completely lost it,” the mayor says of Cr Pazolli. “After the incident all I can remember is his face, him punching the table.”

He says a threat of violence was directed at him in front of mediator Ashley Hunt, who also claimed to have been frightened for his own safety.

Cr Pazolli says he was never a threat to the mayor nor Mr Hunt, who testified feeling shocked when Cr Pazolli “stood up and started screaming and pounding on the table” until he “ran out of steam”.

At one point in the recording, Mr Hunt tells Cr Pazolli he does not condone abusive language in a professional place: “You can’t smash someone in the face and then…and say sorry I’m not going to take it further. That’s not the way it works.”

The magistrate placed little weight on Mr Hunt’s testimony because threats he claims Cr Pazolli made against the mayor did not appear on the recording.

Magistrate Greg Smith found the case revolved around the May meeting and its secret recording by Cr Pazolli, the authenticity of which Mr Aubrey still challenges.

The magistrate concluded Cr Pazolli had stood up and “thumped the table” (Cr Pazolli’s claim he was sitting down when he hit the table repeatedly was rejected).

He also refers to the punches as “strikes”, nine of which could be heard on Cr Pazolli’s iPhone recording.

Intimidating

Cr Pazolli says he did not edit the recording. The magistrate was satisfied this was the case.

“Obviously, Cr Pazolli was close enough to have struck the mayor if he chose to. He didn’t,” the magistrate concluded.

“The fact the mayor was concerned about it does not, in my view, turn it into an assault.”

Mr Smith said Cr Pazolli’s behaviour was intimidating and threatening, but concluded the councillor meant only to “emphasise the points he was making” and struck the table, “perhaps in frustration”. He said violence, “doesn’t always mean physical assaults”.

Mr Aubrey says the magistrate did not appreciate the physical threat he’d faced: “The magistrate never recognised the violence directed at me.”

Magistrate Smith says the mayor had nothing to be afraid of, “such a fear is not reasonable”, nor is Cr Pazolli likely to abuse him in the future.

“He says he is no threat to the mayor and, quite frankly, I believe him.”

by CARMELO AMALFI