Liberal MP Taylor Martin learns his fate after investigation into vile text messages to former lover Lucy Wicks

Taylor Martin has been expelled from the Liberal Party following an eight-month investigation into expletive-laden, abusive text messages he sent former lover Lucy Wicks.

The NSW Upper House member has been sitting as an independent for the duration of the investigation, after Ms Wicks, the former federal member for Robertson, lodged a complaint accusing him of vile conduct.

Mr Martin publicly apologised for a series of text messages in which he described her as ‘f**t’.

In the messages, which he admitted were ‘ugly’, Mr Martin called Ms Wicks a ‘f***ing idiot’, a ‘dumb s***’, a ‘sicko’, an ‘absolute c*** of a person’ and a ‘f***ing pig ignorant b***h’.

Daily Mail Australia revealed in March that Mr Martin was still being welcomed at crucial Liberal state council meetings, where his vote was still counted in the factional in-fighting over whether to expel his ally, Alex Hawke.

On Friday night, the NSW state director of the Liberal Party revealed Mr Martin had been expelled.

The fresh blow comes months after Mr Martin’s new wife Brittany walked out on their marriage.

‘The NSW Liberal Party has received the independent investigation report concerning a confidential complaint against the Hon Taylor Martin MLC,’ the statement read.

‘On the basis of the report’s findings, the NSW Liberal Party State Director acted quickly and decisively… to expel Mr Martin as a member.

‘The NSW Liberal Party expects the highest standards of behaviour of its members and elected representatives and will continue to strive to ensure those standards are consistently upheld.’

A friend of Ms Wicks told Daily Mail Australia on Friday night that she was still coming to terms with the shock announcement.

‘There was some initial shock, and anger that it took almost 10 months just to find that she’d told the truth,’ the woman said.

‘Lucy’s taking some time, but she’s glad the investigation is over.’

NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman said that he supported the state director’s decision after a lengthy, independent investigation.

‘Mr Martin is therefore no longer a member of the Parliamentary Liberal Party,’ he said.

‘I expect, and the public are entitled to expect, the highest standards of behaviour by MPs.’

One Liberal branch member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was ‘about time there was an outcome’, and indicated there had been murmurs in the party that officials were ‘dragging their feet’.

‘I’m not sure they wanted the investigation to finish at all,’ they told Daily Mail Australia.

It is understood the complaint extended well beyond the information made publicly available at the time, including pages upon pages of further text messages.

The Liberal Party has no intention of releasing the report or findings, citing confidentiality reasons.

Ms Wicks was outed without her consent as the complainant.

Mr Martin’s marriage recently ended in tense circumstances. Police responded to a disturbance at the house Mr Martin and his wife of just eight weeks Brittany shared on the Central Coast.

Mr Martin recently stood aside from the parliamentary party room when a barrage of ‘ugly’ text messages he sent his former girlfriend describing her as a ‘f***ing idiot’ and a ‘dumb sl*t’ were publicly exposed.

But in a move that has sparked anger within the party, Daily Mail Australia revealed last month Mr Martin voted at a key NSW state council meeting in the Grand Ballroom of Sydney’s Fullerton Hotel on February 24. 

Mr Martin, who earns $172,000 as a member of the NSW Legislative Council, was excused from sitting with his colleagues in Parliament when his abusive texts to then-sitting federal MP Lucy Wicks were published in the press last July. 

The messages sparked an external investigation that has dragged on for more than eight months – and Mr Martin has sat on the crossbench at Macquarie Street ever since, distanced from the party. 

So his presence at the Liberal state council meeting where he cast a vote supporting his friend Mr Hawke, from being expelled by the party over an intra-party feud over pre-selections – shocked some party members.

One attendee told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Martin’s presence at the council meeting was extraordinary, given he no longer sits in the parliamentary party room.

‘It doesn’t pass the pub test,’ the attendee said.

‘He has been stood down from the party room, it’s just a reality that he should not have been there.’

Other witnesses said Mr Martin was smiling and ‘jovial’ as he chatted with his colleagues and factional allies.

Membership in the parliamentary party room is separate to being a branch member.

But the Liberal Party never clarified that Mr Martin’s votes would still be counted during behind-closed-doors meetings outside of Parliament.

As the investigation into Mr Martin approached its ninth month, Daily Mail Australia recently revealed questions raised about the timeline of the complaints process.

A source with knowledge of the investigation said concerns about Mr Martin were first raised back by Ms Wicks to a member of the state executive in November 2021 – much earlier than reported. 

It’s understood the matter was not followed up for several months before she again returned to the Liberal Party in February 2022, expressing the same concerns to another elected MP.

It is understood that Ms Wicks then took her complaint directly to then-Attorney-General Mark Speakman in February 2023, ahead of the state election, where Premier Dominic Perrottet was defeated. 

By the time Ms Wicks’ complaint was made public in July 2023 – when she was named in the media without her consent – Mr Martin was in the throes of wedding planning with his new fiancée Brittany.

Within eight weeks of his wedding, his new wife Brittany had left the relationship.

In the process of leaving, there was a heated altercation out the front of their Central Coast home in which police were later notified.

‘A report was made to police at Wyong Police Station in February; however, it is of a personal nature and as there are no associated charges,’ a NSW Police spokesperson said in a statement.

‘No further information is available.’ 

Mr Martin publicly apologised for his texts to Ms Wicks shortly after they were made public and vowed to assist with the investigation.

He said: ‘I was young and inexperienced and I found myself involved in a situation that was way beyond me. There were heated words during my attempts to go separate ways that I sincerely regret.

‘It was an ugly and undignified parting of ways.’

Mr Martin was elected to the Legislative Council in 2019 and is serving an eight-year term due to expire in 2027.