Ryde Mayor Ivan Petch's secret calls to lawyer RYDE'S mayor Ivan Petch boasted the discovery of porn on the work computer of the council's general manager could "accidentally" be leaked to the media and "destroy him absolutely," the Independent Commission Against Corruption was told yesterday. A secretly recorded phone call between Mr Petch and solicitor Bryan Belling in February this year, tendered to the inquiry, captures Mr Petch saying general manager John Neish should "have his resignation ready" over the images. ICAC heard Mr Petch had "personal animosity" towards Mr Neish because he hadn't agreed to delay a Ryde civic precinct development Mr Petch opposed. It also heard Mr Petch had breached confidentiality by copying the explicit images, provided to him by council IT staff who had discovered them on Mr Neish council-issued laptop, on to a disc and giving it to Mr Belling. He is also facing claims he failed to disclose financial relationships and attempted to get rid of Mr Neish after previously planning to secure his position if he agreed to delay the development. The phone call records Mr Petch saying there was a "quite extensive" assortment of files on the laptop and Mr Belling, who the inquiry heard was retained to find a way to terminate Mr Neish's contract, replied "you don't believe your luck in a big city hey?." The pair also discussed leaking it to the media. "It will destroy him absolutely," Mr Petch says in the call, adding he had contacts who could see it released in "the national press." He should come and have a quick talk to me and have his resignation ready because if this goes to the national press, which will quite accidentally happen, it will be everywhere. Not only will he not get a job in local government but his standing in the community will be at an all time low. The inquiry heard Mr Petch said he would give Mr Belling "the CD of all the files on it." The inquiry heard that half an hour after this call, Mr Petch rang journalist Robbie Patterson from the Northern District Times, owned by NewsCorp Australia, the publisher of The Daily Telegraph. Mr Petch can be heard telling Patterson he had a "f ... ing bombshell" for him. Mr Patterson yesterday confirmed he'd been given material concerning Mr Neish, but said the paper opted not to publish because it "was inappropriate" and "we couldn't trust the veracity of the information we were given." Mr Neish, who isn't accused of any corrupt conduct, told the hearing on Monday that'd he resigned because he feared "a social media campaign" if details of the pornography were released.