Prostitute Linked with Craig Thomson Worked as a Horse Strapper in NSW

The sex trade worker who claimed to have embattled MP Craig Thomson as her client is real, not an imaginary person created to embarrass the legislator. The Daily Telegraph provided more details of the former prostitute whose tell-all interview with Channel 9's Current Affairs may be the final nail to Mr Thomson's crumbling political career.

The report said the sex trade worker is no longer engaged in the flesh trade. In her 30s now, she recently moved to Murwillumbah to work as a horse strapper but her New South Wales Racing registration lapsed in October 2011.

After her interview with the TV station, slated to broadcast next week, the former prostitute was relocated to an overseas location. She was originally from New Zealand and lived for sometime in Cabarita Beach and Sydney where she was an escort at Boardroom Escorts.

As expected, Mr Thomson had denied the charge and criticised Channel 9 for paying $60,000 to the former escort for her alleged story. Channel 9 denied it paid her that amount, although producers of the show admitted that a fee was being negotiated by the former prostitute.

While the veracity of the woman's story may be difficult to confirm, especially now that she is no longer in Australia, NSW police are on the paper trail allegedly left by Mr Thomson which may provide evidence of his using Health Services Union (HSU) funds to pay for the services of prostitutes.

Reports said the police have forwarded to detectives in Victoria details of at least one escort agency transaction of Mr Thomson using a credit card. However, while that transaction occurred before 2002, Mr Thomson was then already connected with HSU as a senior official at an NSW branch. The card he allegedly used was American Express given by Communigraphix, a printing contractor of HSU.

The Fair Work Australia report that charged Mr Thomson of misusing HSU money between 2002 and 2006 said the MP from Dobell spent $6,000 on prostitutes and used two credit cards to pay for their services.

When Mr Thomson addressed Parliament on Monday, he claimed that in 2004 some HSU officials threatened that they would frame him with prostitutes.

But A Current Affairs disclosed that besides the $6,000 that Mr Thompson charged on HSU credit cards, he also paid another $700 to Boardroom Escorts in May 2005, which was the same escort service where the unnamed prostitute was once employed.

The report said the payment was made to Internat Immobilair, which is the front of Boardroom Escorts. It added that Mr Thomson was in Sydney on May 7, 2005 when the credit card was allegedly used. However, according to the MP's Commonwealth Bank Mastercard, Mr Thomson listed the transaction as a dinner function.

As more details of Mr Thomson's alleged misdeeds come out, Opposition leader Tony Abbott called on Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to force the crossbencher, a former Labor Party member, to leave the parliament.

"At a human level I have a great deal of sympathy for the member for Dobell.... We have no sympathy, though, for a government and a prime minister who have put him in this position by insisting he remain in the parliament when the honourable course of action for him would be to resign," The Australian quoted Mr Abbott.