on Monday night that authorities thought he deserved all of Ashleigh Petrie’s $180,000 payout.“They think I deserve 100 per cent of it,” he said.
He told reporter Alexis Daish that as Ms Petrie’s fiance at the time of her death, Rest Superannuation decided the benefit would go to him in its entirety. Before her death, Ms Petrie nominated her mother as the beneficiary of her superannuation and life insurance. A coronial report found Ms Petrie, 23, died after she ran in front of a car in Metung, in Gippsland, in the early hours of October 28, 2019.
Her death came after the court clerk’s relationship with Mr Higgins, who was then a magistrate, was made public by“I just am sorry that a lot of people have been hurt out of this,” Mr Higgins toldMr Higgins, who got back together with his former partner months after Ms Petrie’s death, admitted it was unusual for a man of his age to “be with a young girl of Ashleigh’s age”. But the retired magistrate, who was 68 when he was with Ms Petrie, defended their relationship.
“The impression, if you like, was Ashleigh worked with me in court, and that I had some sort of hold on her,” he said.