One Nation candidate Aoi Baxter faces UK arrest warrant over sexual touching allegations
Consensus Summary
Aoi Baxter, a One Nation candidate for South Australia’s Adelaide seat, was removed from the party’s ticket after UK authorities issued an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court over allegations he sexually touched a woman without consent in September 2023. The warrant, confirmed by UK courts, stems from charges under the Sexual Offences Act, with local UK media reporting the incident occurred in 2022. Baxter, also known as Trent Baxter, changed his name in 2025 and had operated businesses in Australia and the UK, including a pub-linked company in Milnthorpe. One Nation conducted standard police checks but found no red flags, though Baxter failed to disclose the warrant. The party cooperated with authorities and scrubbed his profile from its website, replacing it with a generic error message. While Baxter denied the allegations, calling for presumption of innocence, contradictions exist over the timing of the incident and the party’s awareness of the warrant. The controversy comes ahead of the South Australian election, with the Liberal Party still pledging to direct preferences to One Nation despite the scandal.
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Key details reported by multiple sources:
- Aoi Baxter (also known as Trent Baxter) is a One Nation candidate for the South Australian seat of Adelaide, removed from the party’s website on election eve
- Baxter has an arrest warrant in the UK for failing to appear in court over a charge of sexually touching a woman without consent (September 2023 incident)
- The UK court confirmed the warrant is without bail and issued by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service
- Baxter changed his name from Trent Baxter to Aoi Scott Baxter in July 2025
- One Nation conducted a nationwide police check on Baxter as part of candidate vetting but found no issues
- Baxter’s profile on One Nation’s website described him as a 31-year-old with a career in the Australian Defence Force and small business operations
- Baxter’s UK business records list his birth date as December 1994 and his company The Pressery as registered to a pub in Milnthorpe, England
Points of Difference
Details reported by only one source:
- One Nation spokesman accused other parties of potentially knowing about the warrant and not disclosing it
- Baxter’s quote: ‘I believe in innocent until proven guilty, that’s all I’m going to say at the moment’
- Mention of a generic website error message replacing Baxter’s profile: ‘Maybe Albo broke the internet (again)’
- UK court officer explicitly stated the charge was a breach of the Sexual Offences Act (September 25, 2023 court date)
- Local UK news outlet (Westmorland Gazette) reported the alleged victim was aged 16 or over, and the incident occurred in 2022 (not 2023)
- Baxter’s UK business address is a pub in Milnthorpe, and the pub manager confirmed Baxter was Australian and aware of the charge
- One Nation media rep Richard Henderson initially questioned the severity of the charge (‘Charge but not conviction, right?’) before later saying ‘I think you might have the wrong person’
- Rotary Club confirmed a Trent Baxter was a brief member in 2013 in regional NSW, not Aoi Baxter
- Baxter’s business AOI Creative was registered to an address owned by Frederick Baxter, who denied knowledge of him
- Liberal Party announced it will direct preferences to One Nation despite open tickets, amid the candidate controversy
- Guardian Australia received One Nation’s statement directly, emphasizing Baxter’s non-disclosure of the warrant
Contradictions
Conflicting information between sources:
- The ABC reports the alleged incident occurred in September 2023, but the Westmorland Gazette (cited by ABC) states it happened in 2022
- One Nation’s initial statement (ABC) says ‘no issues were discovered’ in police checks, but the Guardian’s phrasing implies the party was surprised by the revelation
- The Guardian does not mention Baxter’s quote about ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ which appears in NEWSCOMAU and ABC
- NEWSCOMAU and ABC both report Baxter’s profile was removed from the website, but only NEWSCOMAU includes the specific error message about ‘Albo breaking the internet’
- The ABC states Baxter moved to Adelaide in mid-2025, while NEWSCOMAU does not specify the timeline of his relocation
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