Still mates in wake of Telecom debacle

The disgraced Beehive messenger who leaked the Government's biggest Budget secret says his friendship with the Telecom executive he slipped the information to has survived the scandal.

Michael Ryan passed top-secret Cabinet papers to his friend Peter Garty, setting in motion a chain reaction that wiped $1.8 billion off Telecom's value.

The papers detailed regulatory plans to unbundle Telecom's broadband monopoly - plans that were to form the centrepiece of the Government's 2006 Budget.

A civil servant of 30 years' standing, Ryan was working as a messenger in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet when he was given the classified papers to shred.

But instead he passed them on to Garty, a senior Telecom employee, who relayed the information to his bosses and photocopied the papers.

Ryan was fired in May after an inquiry to ferret out the source of the leak. Police decided not to bring a criminal prosecution against him.

Ryan and Garty were cycling buddies, both members of the Onslow Tarbabies road cycling club that Garty set up about 15 years ago.

They had been friends for 16 years and their wives were also friends. The families had vacationed together and they lived near each other in the affluent Wellington suburb of Khandallah.

Asked about his relationship with Garty since the scandal broke, Ryan told the Herald on Sunday: "We see each other through various avenues, things that we're involved with, family-wise and so forth. We still talk."

At the time the results of the inquiry were announced, State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble said the "human aspect" of the case was particularly sad.

"This will really test their personal relationship, in fact I can't think of anything more testing to be frank."

Ryan's lawyer Peter Cullen said at the time the documents had been leaked out of a "misguided sense of friendship".

Ryan told the Herald on Sunday that when the news of what he had done broke, he knew he had to come forward.

"[It was] the only thing I could do I suppose. I was going to cooperate anyway. I couldn't hide anything and I didn't want to."

Being in the public spotlight after he was revealed as the leaker had been "humiliating" for Ryan and his family but he was not entirely a pariah.

"I've had tremendous support from family and friends and for their sake want the embarrassment they have suffered to end," he said.

"I've been lucky enough to get another job and don't want anything to jeopardise the faith that my new employers have shown in me."

The new job is not in government.

Ryan said he regretted his actions but wanted to forget about the affair.

"I just want to let things go and move on. Just carry on with life."