A WOMAN has told a court Michael Ian Foxman asked her to write an affidavit about his connection to an alleged sex show at Tamworth's Imperial Hotel, but then claims she was fired when she refused.
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Foxman appeared in Tamworth Local Court via video link on Wednesday for a hearing on his charges.
He's accused of intending to pervert the course of justice by approaching potential witnesses in another case before the court.
Louise Eschbach was an employee at the Imperial Hotel when police allege an illegal sex show was held in June 2019. She was the first witness called in the prosecution's case.
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She claimed Foxman asked her on two separate occasions to write an affidavit for him in relation to his knowledge and whereabouts when "the show" was taking place.
The court heard Foxman asked her to say that "he wasn't present" at the show. She said he also asked her to say he was only present for the topless waiters and nothing else.
Ms Eschbach refused his requests, and the court heard she responded that she would not lie and that Foxman had "seen the whole show".
The court was told Ms Eschbach and Foxman were standing close together in the room during the event at the hotel.
Ms Eschbach said she was not working on the night, but was there for cocktails when she went to check out what was happening in the nightclub.
"We went in and had a look and when we first went in they were just topless waitressing," she told the court.
She claimed she left for a few minutes and when she came back, a man from the audience was later called on stage and was given sex toys to wear.
Ms Eschbach then detailed in court the graphic sexual acts that she witnessed on stage.
She gave evidence she could see Foxman standing in the room while the acts were occurring, and that's why she refused to give the statement she claimed he had asked of her.
On Wednesday in court, she was asked to mark both her own and Foxman's positions on the night of the show on a floor plan of the room in the hotel.
The court heard Ms Eschbach was fired via email on two occasions, and she gave evidence that both terminations were a result of refusing to write the affidavit requested.
"So the impression you gained is that every time after you were asked for an affidavit, the following day you are terminated?" defence solicitor Michael Ayache asked.
"Correct," she replied.
Foxman sat quietly through the proceedings but was texting instructions to his solicitor for most of the two-and-a-half hour hearing.
When asked if he understood the process of Ms Eschbach giving evidence, he replied: "Yes I understand but Louise Eschbach is a liar."
Mr Ayache asked Ms Eschbach if she could have got the dates confused, and put to her that she actually was fired - the first time - before she'd been asked to write an affidavit for Foxman.
"You would maintain before His Honour that you were terminated [on September 10] even though the conversation [about the affidavit] ... did not occur until six days later," he submitted.
"Correct," the witness replied, though she admitted during cross examination she may have been wrong about the dates of the conversations.
The hearing has been adjourned.
The defence indicated in court it would deny the conversations between Ms Eschbach and Foxman about an affidavit ever happened.
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