Premier wrecked my marriage, claims alleged attacker

CANBERRA - South Australian Premier Mike Rann has been accused of destroying the marriage of the man charged with attacking him last week.

The allegation was made in a series of letters obtained by the Australian, in which 55-year-old Adelaide businessman Richard Wayne Phillips attributed the end of his marriage to Michelle Chantelois to a "clandestine" friendship with Rann.

Phillips is alleged to have struck Rann with a magazine, bruising the Premier's face, during an altercation at the National Wine Centre.

Rann, who has expressed "incredible frustration" at not being able to talk publicly about the relationship because of the charge of aggravated assault against Phillips, has confirmed befriending Chantelois, 39, when she was working in the bar at Parliament House in Adelaide.

Rann has said he helped Chantelois through a difficult period in her marriage. The friendship was known to Rann's wife, Sasha Carruozzo, who was said to have expressed no concern.

In its report yesterday , the Australian repeated earlier disclaimers that there was no suggestion the relationship between Rann and Chantelois was anything more than a friendship.

The newspaper said it had obtained letters from Phillips to Rann and Carruozzo, sent between November 2005 and January 2007, in which Phillips claims the Premier's friendship with his wife broke up the marriage.

Phillips described how his wife had approached Rann "needing friendship and counsel when our family was in crisis".

But he claimed Rann instead chose to develop "a clandestine one-on-one relationship" which "caused irreparable damage to our relationship and major trauma to our children".

Channel Seven's Today Tonight show said phone records showed that between March 2004 and October 2005 Chantelois sent more than 200 text messages to Rann's personal cellphone.