A court case brought by the former girlfriend of ex-Labor MP Nathan Murphy, which tried to prevent the media reporting on a notorious house sitting spat, has collapsed.

At a hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Daniel Porceddu, a barrister for eco-entrepreneur Emily Ballantyne-Brodie, confirmed that his client had withdrawn an application for a permanent intervention order against Deck of Secrets publishing tsar Michelle Matthews.

The pair had fallen out after Matthews’ $1 million CBD apartment was left in a squalid state following a $500 per-head knees-up during last year’s state election campaign to bankroll Murphy’s failed bid for Northern Metropolitan. Matthews returned from overseas to discover her trashed pad, which she had rented to Ballantyne-Brodie for five weeks at below-market rates.

Designer clothing — including a $700 Karen Millan trench coat and a Black Body brand dress — were missing. And a set of his and hers underwear was left strewn among the detritus, which included several male razorblades and other paraphernalia.

Hunting for an explanation, Matthews discovered details of a fund-raiser from a scrunched up flyer found wedged under her couch and addressed to Plumbers Union secretary Earl Setches. The invite, with the title “Nathan Murphy MP Cooks For You“, pictured the Bill Shorten loyalist clutching a well-basted turkey.

In March, the 27-year-old Ballantyne-Brodie, with the support of Murphy and her mother, slapped an anti-“stalking” order on Matthews following Crikey‘s initial story on the matter, preventing her from going within 250 metres of her nemesis. A document listing the claims and counter-claims was produced. Crikey was then pressured by Porceddu, who bizarrely suggested we were subject to the order and therefore required to remove the yarn from the web.

The case has cost Matthews more than $10,000 in legal fees and airfares. She was forced to fly home from London for the latest instalment, only to be informed during a stopover in Singapore that Ballantyne-Brodie had backed away.

Until yesterday, a gag order issued by Magistrate Denise O’Reilly had prevented any further reporting of the case. But in an email sent by Porceddu to Matthews’ lawyers on September 12, the barrister states that he had withdrawn the action “given that she [Matthews] has complied with the conditions thus far”. The order was then lifted.

Matthews, a former Ansett flight attendant turned global guidebook mogul, told Crikey she had received several recent approaches from Murphy in attempt to smooth relations. She says the Labor Right scion promised to reveal the full story as to why her clothes were missing and explain the trail of destruction following the fund-raiser.

Last week Murphy issued the following mea culpa via email:

“The whole thing was a misunderstanding on my part and the subsequent events are something that I never really expected or wanted to deal with. I am not sure who you were angry at, myself Emily or both of us. It was pretty awful to be stuck in the middle of it.”

In a previous email, he seemed to back away from his own shindig.

“The whole saga is something that I really never wanted to be part of, from the lunch to the current situation,” Murphy wrote.

Ballantyne-Brodie did not respond to an email requesting comment. Murphy, who is overseas, declined to comment and Porceddu said he had nothing further to add.