Ex-husband of Mark Latham’s former porn star lover has major legal win and hits out at police after being dragged into sordid saga

The ex-husband of NSW Independent MP Mark Latham’s porn star former partner has been cleared of a criminal charge he said should never have been laid. 

Ross Matthews has complained he was not even interviewed by police before they accused him of waging a campaign of harassment against his ex-wife Nathalie Matthews.

Mr Matthews was charged in July with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend Ms Matthews with phone calls and emails between April 1 and June 2.

The starting date of that alleged conduct coincided with the first listing of a case Mr Matthews had brought against his ex-wife in the equity division of the NSW Supreme Court.

Mr Matthews pleaded not guilty to the harassment charge when it was first mentioned at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.

Solicitor Alen Sahinovic had indicated his client would be producing independent phone records in his defence and the matter was set for hearing on December 19.

On that day, police withdrew the charge and an accompanying application for an apprehended violence order to protect Ms Matthews.

Mr Matthews said police had offered to drop the charge if he accepted the AVO but he had refused and both matters were subsequently withdrawn.

He told the Daily Mail he had given police much of the evidence he was going to use in his defence and asked if they would be taking any action against Ms Matthews. 

‘I am glad that upon reviewing the evidence, the prosecutor instantly dropped the charges and withdrew the AVO,’ the 35-year-old said on Sunday.

‘However, that evidence was all available when NSW police charged me. Had they bothered to interview me, I would have provided them this. 

‘Unfortunately, police all too often take the attitude that it’s up to the courts to work out the facts of the case and are far too quick to charge.

‘Even when found not guilty, the process itself is a punishment but I am glad the prosecutor came to the right decision here.’ 

A NSW Police spokesman said the force does not ‘provide comment on court results, withdrawal of proceedings or costs awarded’.

The harassment allegation against Mr Matthews came a week after he insisted he no longer had anything to do with his former wife since their split more than three years ago.

Mr Matthews spoke out after Ms Matthews, 38, accused Latham, 64, of ‘a sustained pattern’ of psychological, financial and emotional abuse during their relationship.

‘Please stop messaging me,’ Ross Matthews posted to X on July 16. ‘I don’t speak to Nathalie and do not care. Thank you.’

This publication revealed last July that Ms Matthews had worked as an OnlyFans porn star for years before she began dating Latham.

Ms Matthews posted hundreds of explicit images of herself on the site under the name Bondi C** S***, as well as videos showing her having sex.

Nathalie May Darrough married Ross David Matthews in 2018 but their union reportedly ended in 2022, before she began going out with Latham.

Ms Matthews describes herself as the managing director of Skynet Global Logistics, a company involved in freight forwarding which has a presence in Sydney, Perth and Dubai.

The Daily Mail revealed in July she had converted to Islam in November 2022 and adopted the name Maryam Abdullah.

Ms Matthews, who is accused of sharing an intimate image without consent, spent a night in custody when she was arrested in October after flying back to Sydney from Dubai.

She has pleaded not guilty to accessing/modifying restricted data held in a computer, intentionally recording an intimate image without consent and intentionally distributing an image without consent. 

That case will be back in court on February 5.

Mr Matthews told the Daily Mail he was not the alleged victim of the charges his ex-wife was facing – that person cannot be identified – but he was aware of ‘the circumstances surrounding them’.

‘While I condemn Nat’s [alleged] behaviour, for her to be arrested at the airport and held for 28 hours over such a petty matter that she never would have been charged with had she not been in the public eye is ridiculous,’ he said.

‘I know for a fact that NSW Police were in contact with Nat a week before she was arrested, after they had already issued the warrant for her arrest but did not advise her she had an outstanding warrant or even ask her to return to Australia.’

Ms Matthews is privately seeking an AVO against Latham, accusing him forcing her into degrading sexual acts and demanding she call him ‘master’.

The Daily Mail is not suggesting any wrongdoing by Latham, only that Ms Matthews has made allegations against him as part of her AVO application.

Latham has denied ever mistreating Ms Matthews during what he has described as a ‘sexed-up, consensual, open arrangement’.

He has not disputed sending sexually graphic texts to Ms Matthews – but says some messages have been taken out of context – and has not denied having sex with Ms Matthews in Parliament House.

When the AVO application was mentioned in Downing Centre Local Court in October, Latham described it as a ‘complete waste of the court’s time’.

‘There should be a change to the law in NSW whereby having been rejected by the police for an AVO, you can’t come with a private set of lies,’ Latham said outside court.

‘This is an outrageous use of the legal system that someone can belittle and abuse the domestic violence space with things that are clearly made up.’

Ms Matthews’s AVO application is listed for a three-day hearing starting on May 21.