I’ve been writing about the Derrick May case for quite a while now, and I don’t intend to stop for some time. A name I keep coming across whilst studying the story is Mike Weston.

So who is he? Weston is, according to the affidavit he provided in support of May in his recent case against Michael James, “a self-employed artist, producer, manager, media strategist and artist mentor”. He lives in Auckland in New Zealand, and has connections in high places.

He helpfully provided, alongside his partner in art, Otis Frizzell, this piece of art for popular New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – later ruled by the country’s Electoral Commission to be adverts for Ardern’s Labour party.

A talent for art, indeed. But Mike Weston’s skills as a “media strategist” are what I’m interested here. As a person who claims to understand how the media works, he would be the first to know when to throw petrol at a story – and conversely, when to come running at it with wet towels.

Something that he appears to have forgotten in his affidavit for May. There are a number of particularly objectionable points in his truly nauseating affidavit, but I shall focus on just two for the moment.

Annabel Ross, as one of the journalists central to breaking this story, has no doubt had her fair share of criticism for it. But Weston decided that when others are going low, he should go even lower.

In his affidavit, he refers to an article that Ross wrote in December 2018 where she speaks about her experiences of having her drink spiked. For being the victim of this crime, Weston disgracefully claims this raises “questions about her objectivity around accusations of drug use in sexual assault”.

In a further attempt to undermine her (or is it his?) credibility, he refers to an article she wrote for Elle Magazine describing an obsessive compulsive disorder. Weston asserts that this “brings her psychological stability into question”.

Just how desperate to build a case would you have to be to turn to a lowlife like that? And just what would Jacinda Ardern – a leader throughly proud of her feminist credentials – make of an associate attacking women in such a malicious manner?

The mind boggles…