Son of mega miner scolds Australian minister for intervening in 4 bln USD trust case

The son of billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart on Friday slammed Australia's Agriculture Minister for interfering in a family dispute over a multi-billion dollar trust fund.

John Hancock, the estranged son of Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, won a three-year legal battle against his mother over control of the family trust worth 4 billion US dollars.

Hancock said Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce had made a " dangerous intervention" during the court case, a Fairfax Media report said on Friday.

In handing down his decision to appoint Hancock's sister and ally, Bianca Rinehart, as trustee of the fund, New South Wales ( NSW) Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton said he had "never seen such pressure exerted, so persistently, on a litigant, as has been apparent in this case".

"(Gina) Rinehart has repeatedly, directly, or through her lawyers, or through other influential connections' sought to deter her children from prosecuting by employing measures - some of which closely approach intimidation," Brereton said.

Brereton said an email sent by Joyce in 2011 to another of Hancock's sisters and allies, Hope Welker, tried to persuade her against continuing with litigation. She later pulled out of the case in 2014.

Honcock questioned whether Joyce should continue serving as a minister in the federal cabinet.

"Is this the type of person who should be sitting in federal cabinet?" Hancock told Fairfax Media.

"This character sits three chairs down from the Prime Minister. To have someone so easily manipulated, or alternatively so naive, is dangerous in such a position," he said.

"By doing so, he endorsed the conduct of Gina Rinehart."

The letter was sent to Welker when Joyce was a shadow minister and leader of the National Party in the Senate.

"You are a family Australia needs," wrote Joyce. "All good families have their problems but before it gets really out of hand, I would try to get it back in house and out of public view."

Hancock said it was extraordinary Joyce would send an email from his parliamentary account "to someone he never met, on a subject he knew nothing about, apart from what had been fed to him. "

Hancock said he cannot imagine his mother would accept the court's decision and expected her to appeal. Endi