A restaurant owner who says a protest campaign by vegans cost him his relationship claims he was “badly prepared” for his application for a violence restraining order against notorious protester Tash Peterson.
Fyre restaurant owner John Mountain and Ms Peterson came face-to-face again at Joondalup Magistrates Court last week.
They were in court after Mr Mountain lodged a violence restraining order against Ms Peterson, who is also facing a criminal trial for trespassing and a defamation case by Mr Mountain.
Mr Mountain said he wanted to stop Ms Peterson posting about him and his business after two protests by the vegan activist at his Fyre Restaurant in Connolly last year which made international headlines. He argued her posts lead to threats of violence.
Ms Peterson did not speak in court but appeared with legal representation, while her boyfriend Jack Higgs and his mother Christine watched on from the public gallery.
Mr Mountain, who did not have legal representation, proceeded with evidence after Ms Peterson’s lawyer Zarah Burgess offered to sit with Mr Mountain and upload the evidence on to her USB device as it was stored on his phone.
Magistrate Raelene Johnston made Mr Mountain aware of the option for a legal undertaking in which both parties would come to an agreement.
Ms Burgess said her client would not be willing to engage in an undertaking.
At one point Mr Mountain asked for the case to be adjourned so he could get legal representation. He revealed he had already spent $50,000 on lawyers for the defamation case.
“I thought it was two people going into court, they show their evidence and I show mine and you would make a decision,” he said. “They (lawyers) speak your language and I don’t.”
However, when discussing grounds for an adjournment Mr Mountain chose to proceed with self-representation in a bid to have a decision reached on the day.
In the witness box, Mr Mountain said the feud “with vegans” started in June last year when a diner called in advance requesting vegan alternatives and was left disappointed with her meal.
Mr Mountain said he received a message from her and was particularly triggered by the term referring to his restaurant as the “next failure”.
“I responded with ‘I’m sorry we didn’t look after you but now you’ve attacked me personally, you can f*** off and you can tell all other vegans to do the same’,” Mr Mountain said.
Mr Mountain said the response was uploaded onto a “vegan page” and the business was immediately inundated with one-star Google reviews.
“My rating went from 4.2 down to 2.8 within an hour. I had over 300 negative reviews, the name calling was horrific and damaging my business,” he said.
“Idiotic things I read was ‘He likes to touch children’.”
Mr Mountain said a Facebook post banning vegans from his restaurant that made international headlines caught the attention of Ms Peterson.
He described Ms Peterson as a “wild banshee” who refused to let go of the restaurant’s door at the first protest at the venue.
Mr Mountain said a second protest a week later led to a physical confrontation between them.
“I grabbed the megaphone just to stop the noise. She wouldn’t let go, so I pulled and she came with it. I then pulled the opposite way, she went with it,” he said.
“It didn’t feel good. I have a rule in my life that I would never fight with a woman but in this instance it felt right.
“Within 30 seconds a large male approached me from the rear and hooked me in a double arm lock.
“The man pushed me out of the way to stop me from causing further injury.”
Mr Mountain showed the court social media messages which belittled and threatened him, including one which read “we will slaughter your wife”.
He created an Instagram page @onlyfyrefans dedicated to posting hateful messages which he told the court helped his mental health.
The chef argued Ms Peterson’s posts about him coincided with the threats and barrage of negative reviews.
In an intense cross-examination, Ms Burgess argued the threats and negative reviews of the restaurant occurred prior to Ms Peterson’s involvement and there was no evidence linking the posts to her.
“You talk about a large man pulling you away, to use your words, ‘to prevent further injury’,” Ms Burgess said before referencing an injury allegedly caused to Ms Peterson in the scuffle.
“I didn’t medically examine her. I didn’t know until afterwards she grazed her little finger,” Mr Mountain said.
Ms Burgess then presented an image of Mr Mountain holding a pig taken for his book which Ms Peterson posted.
“You cradling a dead pig was not edited was it?”, Ms Burgess said.
Mr Mountain responded: “Not at all, I love to cradle dead pigs”.
Mr Mountain was also asked about his regular use of the hashtag #f*ckvegans, which he said he censored.
“I don’t use profanities. But I do mean f*** vegans,” he said.
Ms Burgess also asked about the term “vegan slayer”. Mr Mountain said he often referred to himself as that and admitted he had written it in the restaurant’s toilets.
“Do you or do you not like being provocative,” Ms Burgess asked.
“I like to tell the truth,” Mr Mountain responded. “No one else has stood up to her.”
A statement in the media was also shown in which Mr Mountain referred to Ms Peterson’s boyfriend as “a little bitch”.
“Oh he is a little bitch,” Mr Mountain responded as he turned to Mr Higgs in the gallery.
Ms Burgess claimed the VRO was a means to get revenge on Ms Peterson who she believed was a scapegoat representing all vegans. She believed Mr Mountain also saw her as a symbol of the backlash which ultimately led to a split with his partner.
“It’s (the global attention) been very tough on my relationship; in fact it ended my relationship,” Mr Mountain said.
“I don’t blame her entirely, but she (Mountain’s ex-partner) was a very private person.
“She was a multimillionaire-esse and didn’t want to be known to the public.”
When Ms Burgess said the VRO was payback for losing his partner, Mr Mountain responded “Maybe I dodged a bullet with that partner, you never know”.
Ms Burgess concluded by arguing the VRO was not necessary because Ms Peterson already had a trespass notice which banned her from the restaurant and Mr Mountain had “created a brand against vegans”.
The proceedings were adjourned to April 30, where Ms Johnston will hand down her decision.
Speaking outside court, Mr Mountain said he was “very badly prepared”.
He said a previous VRO brought against him from a disgruntled customer ended in a mutual agreement and expected the same in this scenario.
“I was hoping that would be the same case but obviously (Ms Peterson) doesn’t care and she’s going to dig her heels in again,” he said.
“I felt like I was bulldozed. I felt like I didn’t give a good argument because to me it’s plain and simple in my head. Every time she posts about me I get negative reviews and hatred.
“I can see from the magistrate that she’s not totally convinced.
“I just f*****g hate her (Ms Peterson), she’s caused that much grief in my life. It’s not about vengeance or revenge because that’s stupid, I just genuinely want to get on with it.
“This year is a hard year for her and she’s got a lot of court cases coming up.”
Ms Peterson said outside court she was feeling “confident” about the outcome.
“I think it’s actually absurd to put out a violence retraining order on me; in fact I think it should be the other way round because there was physical violence towards me on at least three occasions,” she said.