The Victorian Liberal Party is in chaos after prominent MP Moira Deeming accused former leader Matthew Guy of assaulting her at a public function in Melbourne.
Mr Guy has vehemently denied Ms Deeming’s claim that he placed her in a “violent” headlock at a Macedonian community event on Sunshine West on May 23, about 10 minutes after he posted selfies of the pair.
CCTV footage from inside the Sheldon Reception ballroom shows Mr Guy leaning towards Ms Deeming and briefly placing his hand on her upper back before repeating the gesture with Ms Deeming’s male staffer, who was seated between the pair.
Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has accused colleague Matthew Guy of putting her in a violent headlock at a public function, which Guy denies, and has made an assault complaint to police.
CCTV appears to show Guy placing his hand on Deeming’s back.
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Ms Deeming reported the interaction to party leader Jess Wilson, whose office sought advice and gave her three options – make a police report, make a workplace complaint, or resolve it through internal party processes, The Age reported.
She then made a formal complaint to Victoria Police on June 16, and a police spokesperson confirmed an investigation was underway.
Mr Guy is now considering legal advice to sue Ms Deeming for defamation over the allegations, ABC News reported.
Ms Deeming previously won a defamation lawsuit against another former Liberal leader, John Pesutto, for comments he made falsely accusing her of links to National Socialist Network protesters who gatecrashed a women’s rights rally she attended in 2023.
In text messages sent by Ms Deeming to multiple party colleagues and seen by The Australian, the Liberal MP claims she was left “feeling humiliated and threatened and degraded” after the incident.
“I felt like someone smashed me in the base of my skull with a wine bottle – but it was Matthew Guy grabbing me violently in some kind of head lock,” she wrote.
“He wouldn’t let me go. He held on the side of my face and had his whole arm round my head and was pulling. I thought I was going to be ripped off my chair, and have my face smashed into [my staffer’s] lap or the table.”
In other messages she claimed that the CCTV footage “shows exactly what I told the police and exactly what I previously described to you all”.
“Guy grabbed me by the back of the head and held me there – in some kind of headlock- and you can see my arm holding the table and straining against his pull,” she said.
Multiple Liberal MPs told The Age they supported Mr Guy and believed the allegation was false, with one saying they were “desperately upset for Matthew”.
“He is the victim in this. Why do we have to keep going through this?” they said.
“Moira Deeming has accused Matthew of violently and viciously attacking her, putting her in a headlock at a Macedonian function. The CCTV footage shows the complete opposite.”
Others told the ABC they were upset that the allegations threatened to destabilise the party ahead of the November state election, where the Coalition is leading the Labor government in the polls but trailing One Nation.
Header image: Left, CCTV footage of the interaction (supplied). Right, Ms Deeming and Mr Guy at the function (Instagram).
