Horan’s side

The Herald reports:

The mother of MP Brendan Horan protested against changes to her will in a recorded statement in which she questioned what had happened.

Olwen Horan’s lawyer also raised concerns about the changes by a new law firm which happened two months before she died.

The Weekend Herald has found the changes were instigated by the MP’s half-brother, recently discharged bankrupt Peter Horan.

He and another half-brother, sickness beneficiary Mana Ormsby, discovered before Mrs Horan’s death that she had no money left from a decade-old lottery win they believed they had a claim to.

The changes included a $150,000 payment to Peter Horan which had not appeared in her earlier wills.

It also included the clause seeking an investigation into spending from Olwen Horan’s account by two other siblings, Brendan Horan and Marilyn Bleackley.

The revelation ended Brendan Horan’s political career with NZ First. A police investigation is currently under way into the spending although the trust executor’s inquiry found “no evidence which would enable me to found a claim against Brendan”.

This is highly relevant information.

I was one of those who said that the original allegations did not cast Horan in a favourable light. But this further information casts it in a very different light.

Peters booted Horan from the NZ First caucus without a semblance of natural justice. There was no vote or even discussion in caucus. Peters just announced it by fiat. Horan was never allowed a hearing where he could put his side of the story.

It is no wonder he is so aggrieved by Peters. The hypocrisy is great as Peters once took National to court alleging a lack of natural justice in the decision to now allow him to stand for Tauranga again. Consistency is not his strong point.