Updated Bruce Lehrmann Pt2 * Reynolds wins two out of three in defamation trial & pursues bankruptcy against Higgins

[Kurve]

Here is PART 1

Just a reminder, this is the crime board and we need to be aware that there will be victims of crime either watching this thread or engaging in here from time to time. A degree of respect in all discussions is expected.

LINK TO TIMELINE
CJS INQUIRY
FINAL REPORT – BOARD OF INQUIRY – CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Joint media statement – Chief Minister and Attorney-General



FIONA BROWN - AFFIDAVIT

 

[Kurve]

* Bruce Lehrmann is named as the alleged rapist in a Queensland case

* Lidia Thorpe, a contributor to the Jenkins review which was raised in the fallout from Higgins allegations, has accused Senator David Van of sexual assault in Parliament. David Van was subsequently removed from the Liberal Party room.

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has made a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) alleging rape in Parliament House.

Ms Higgins alleges she was sexually assaulted by a colleague inside then-defence industry minister Linda Reynold's office two years ago.

Brittany Higgins goes to police about alleged rape at Parliament House

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has made a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police about her alleged rape in 2019.

www.abc.net.au

TIMELINE IN BRITTANY HIGGINS ALLEGED ASSAULT

2019

Friday, March 22

• Staffers Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins attend drinks with colleagues at The Dock bar in Canberra. Ms Higgins has 11 drinks over the course of 4.5 hours. Lehrmann cannot remember the number of drinks he had, but describes himself as being "moderately" drunk.
• Lehrmann and Ms Higgins go to a nightclub with two other colleagues for another few hours.

Saturday, March 23

• The pair share an Uber to Parliament House together, arriving about 1.40am. Lehrmann tells security they have been requested to pick up work documents.
• Ms Higgins and Lehrmann are signed in by security guards and escorted to the ministerial suite of then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds.
• Lehrmann leaves the building without Ms Higgins approximately an hour after they arrived together.
• A security guard visits the suite about 4am, finding Ms Higgins disoriented and naked on a couch in the minister's office.
• Ms Higgins wakes up about 8.30am on Saturday and leaves parliament in an Uber about 10am.
• A cleaner enters the suite in the late afternoon for an "out of hours" office clean.

Tuesday, March 26

• Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) provides a report to Senator Reynolds' chief of staff Fiona Brown about a "security breach", triggered by staff entering the office inebriated and after hours.
• Lehrmann is called to a meeting with Ms Brown over the security breach. Ms Higgins is called into a separate meeting.

Monday, April 1

• Ms Higgins meets with Senator Reynolds in the office where the incident allegedly occurred.
• Ms Higgins meets with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) unit at Parliament House.

Friday, April 5
* Lehrmann's employment in Senator Reynolds' office is terminated over the security breach. It is his second strike after an earlier breach involving the handling of sensitive documents.

Monday, April 8
* Ms Higgins meets with AFP at Belconnen police station.

Thursday, April 11
* Former prime minister Scott Morrison calls the federal election.

Saturday, April 13
* Ms Higgins tells police she won't continue with her complaint, citing her current workplace demands.

June
* Post-election Ms Higgins applies for and is offered a job as a media adviser for then-minister Michaelia Cash.

Late-October

• Media inquiry lodged with Senator Reynolds' office about the security breach.
• One of Senator Reynold's staffers meets with Ms Higgins to discuss the media inquiry

2021

Wednesday, January 27
* Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz meet with The Project journalist Lisa Wilkinson and a producer in Sydney.

Friday, January 29
* Ms Higgins resigns from her adviser position in Senator Cash's office.

Tuesday, February 2
* Ms Higgins records an interview with Lisa Wilkinson for The Project.

Thursday, February 4
* Ms Higgins contacts the AFP to reopen her police complaint.

Saturday, February 6
* Ms Higgins has a preliminary meeting with AFP's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team. She alerts police she has taken part in an interview with a journalist and is advised media coverage may jeopardise an investigation and subsequent prosecution.

Monday, February 15
* Ms Higgins' interviews are published by news.com.au in the morning and aired by The Project that evening.

Wednesday, February 24
* Ms Higgins undertakes her first evidence-in-chief interview with AFP officers.

Monday, March 15
* Ms Higgins makes speech at March4Justice rally outside Parliament House.

Tuesday, March 16
* Ms Higgins is offered a book deal worth $325,000 about her experiences.

Monday, April 19
* Lehrmann is interviewed by police.

Wednesday, May 26
* Ms Higgins has a second evidence-in-chief interview with AFP officers. She provides her phone to police for extraction after the interview.

Friday, August 6
* Lehrmann summonsed to appear before ACT Supreme Court in relation to the incident.

Thursday, September 16
* Lehrmann appears before court, charged with sexual intercourse without consent and pleads not guilty.

Friday, November 5
* Lehrmann committed to stand trial.

Thursday, November 18
* Trial date laid down for June 6, 2022.

2022

Monday, February 28
* Lehrmann's legal team indicate they may apply for a permanent stay due to concerns he would not be able to receive a fair trial.

Friday, April 1
* Lawyers for Lehrmann apply to have case halted.

Friday, April 29
* Application for stay dismissed by the court.

Thursday, June 2
* Trial delayed by three weeks. New trial date set for June 27.

Tuesday, June 21
* Trial delayed after Lisa Wilkinson's Logies speech in which she thanked Ms Higgins.

Thursday, June 23
* New trial date set for October and slated to run for up to six weeks.

Tuesday, October 4
* Trial begins in Canberra.

Monday, October 10
* Ms Higgins is unavailable to attend court. The court hears from other witnesses in her absence.

Tuesday, October 11
* Journalists Samantha Maiden and Lisa Wilkinson are removed from the witness list.

Wednesday, October 12
* Prosecution indicates trial is well ahead of schedule, half the original witness list is cut.

Friday, October 14
* Ms Higgins returns to court and the defence completes its cross-examination.

Monday, October 24

• Coalition senators Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds give evidence.
• Senator Cash denies knowing about Ms Higgins' rape allegations until 2021. Ms Higgins previously told the court she had several conversations with Senator Cash about her allegations.
• Senator Linda Reynolds is accused by the prosecution of trying to interfere in the outcome of the trial. It is revealed she sought access to the transcripts of Ms Higgins' evidence before appearing in court. She was told this request was "inappropriate" and did not receive the transcripts.
• It was also revealed Senator Reynolds messaged Lehrmann's defence team about a potential line of questioning two hours after

Ms Higgins began her evidence.
* The prosecutor accused the senator of trying to coach the cross-examination of Ms Higgins because she was politically invested in the outcome of the case. She denies both suggestions.

Wednesday, October 19
* Jury begins deliberations after final instructions from Chief Justice Lucy McCallum.

Monday, October 24

• Jury sends note to the court asking for "a little extra time" to deliberate.
• Chief Justice McCallum assures the jury there is "no rush" and they should not feel pressured by people waiting for their verdict.

Thursday, October 27
* The chief justice dismisses the jury after it was discovered one juror obtained information outside the evidence presented in court. A retrial is set for February 20, 2023.

Thursday, November 17
* The ACT government announces it is considering law changes to allow recorded evidence from a first trial to be used in a subsequent trial in a bid to stop someone being required to give in-person evidence a second time.

Friday, December 2
* ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold announces the case has been dropped, after receiving medical advice regarding Ms Higgins.

 

[jason_recliner]

If you wouldn't accept that from the Israeli Government, why would you accept it from ours?

I'm not following you.

 

[Kurve]

Albrechtsen at The Australian.

Janet Albrechtsen Columnist for The Australian newspaper
Pitched herself as a cheerleader for the rule of law and instead became a cheerleader for a rapist.

Every player in the Lehrmann scandal

Bruce Lehrmann’s rape of Brittany Higgins has dragged in dozens of people, almost all of them damaged by the scandal and its fallout.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

 

[Kurve]

It was Albrechtsen who raked through the diaries of a dead woman who'd accused Christian Porter of rape, called Sharaz Higgins puppetmaster and asked in print, if rape victim Higgins compensation payment was 'for services rendered'. It was Albrechtsen whose obsession with the Higgins case infected an inquiry in to it's handling.

And much more ..

 

[Kurve]

 

[Kurve]

 

[BFew]

Janet Albrechtsen cops a closer look from the Saturday Paper's editor today.

Who is Janet Albrechtsen?

Twenty-two years ago, Janet Albrechtsen was especially concerned about the survivors of rape. This should be unremarkable, except for the writing that followed.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Editorial
Who is Janet Albrechtsen?​

Twenty-two years ago, Janet Albrechtsen was especially concerned about the survivors of rape. This should be unremarkable, except for the writing that followed.

At the time, she saw rape as a religious issue. She blamed it on “Islamic values”.

She claimed a French psychotherapist, Jean-Jacques Rassial, had showed the “pack-rape of white girls is an initiation rite of passage for a small section of young male Muslim youth”. She went on to describe it as a “barbaric rite of passage into manhood”.

In reality, Rassial’s work said the opposite: “There is absolutely no connection between the cultural background, even less between the ethnic one, and this practice.”

A Danish expert cited by Albrechtsen said the same: “The citation is completely wrong.”

Speaking under parliamentary privilege, Craig Emerson said: “This is not sloppy journalism; it is dishonest journalism. Ms Albrechtsen did not fail to check her source. She checked it all right – and doctored what he had to say, to deceive the public in her column.”

Media Watch alleged Albrechtsen plagiarised parts of this fabrication from a British newspaper, which she denied. Two years later, the Howard government appointed her to the ABC board.

Albrechtsen occupies a curious place in the Australian media. Where there is an ideological grift, she is often there grifting. She has spent half a lifetime fighting culture wars. She is a studious defender of conservative power and its belief to be forever under attack, a useful female voice in the lonely role of guarding men’s rights.

When Alan Tudge was accused of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, and was removed from the front bench by Scott Morrison, Albrechtsen jumped on a slender inquiry to vindicate him. She said some women had legitimate complaints. That was only so she could say what she really meant: “For the sake of a few votes, Morrison made it known he was willing to snivel in the face of a bunch of graceless women.”

For Albrechtsen, the Me Too movement has distorted the courts. It has emboldened prosecutors to pursue men. She points out justice is a lady. “Lynch mobs come and lynch mobs go – from the women of Salem to the Ku Klux Klan to McCarthyism – but until political leaders are prepared to stand up to this behaviour, it will get worse.”

It was Albrechtsen who raked through the diaries of the dead woman who accused Christian Porter of rape, a claim he denies. It was Albrechtsen whose obsession with the Brittany Higgins case infected an inquiry into its handling.

It was Albrechtsen who published pieces describing Higgins’s partner as her “puppet master”. It was Albrechtsen who described Scott Morrison’s apology to Higgins as “nothing short of grotesque”. It was Albrechtsen who wondered in print if the compensation paid to Higgins after she was r*ped was “for services rendered”.

Albrechtsen knows what these words imply. Double meaning is essential to columns that say the opposite of what is true. There is always in her work a cruelty and a cleverness. She is a good writer and a bad person.

The line between Albrechtsen’s columns on the Sydney gang rapes and the Bruce Lehrmann case is not so crooked. It helps to understand that in both cases she is writing only about the men. Two decades ago they were dark skinned and haunting public toilets. Now they are Liberal Party staffers.

The women in these stories disappear. Her empathy is built of binaries. Maleness is where power is held and it is there she finds her purpose: a ruthless and effective agent of a group whose privilege makes them feel besieged.'

 

[BFew]

Most of all, it should be Bruce Lehrmann that apologises to Lynda Reynolds and Fiona Brown.

 

[jason_recliner]

Well done to her for apologising to Brown and Reynolds. Well played and classy.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

Most of all, it should be Bruce Lehrmann that apologises to Lynda Reynolds and Fiona Brown.

Hell will freeze over before Lehrmann apologises to anyone.

 

[Festerz]

Laura Tingle - as always, succinct and straight to the art of the matter with a focus on the facts. Calling out BS and hypocrisy in the process.

 

[Festerz]

It was Albrechtsen who raked through the diaries of a dead woman who'd accused Christian Porter of rape, called Sharaz Higgins puppetmaster and asked in print, if rape victim Higgins compensation payment was 'for services rendered'. It was Albrechtsen whose obsession with the Higgins case infected an inquiry in to it's handling.

And much more ..

View attachment 1964986

An excellent article.

One, I hope, the trolls in this thread who posted selected segments of Albrechtsen's twisted narratives with glee should read and reflect on.

But of course, they won't.

 

[CD Xbow]

The Saturday Paper has a who's who list of all the folks drawn into the saga. It's a long list. Is your name there?

Every player in the Lehrmann scandal

Bruce Lehrmann’s rape of Brittany Higgins has dragged in dozens of people, almost all of them damaged by the scandal and its fallout.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

 

[Festerz]

No surprises here.

Reynolds is unwilling to accept Ms Higgins' statement and wants more.

 

[spike101]

No surprises here.

Reynolds is unwilling to accept Ms Higgins' statement and wants more.

Which parts doesn’t Higgins agree with, cherry picking? After Lehrmann, Sharaz is the worst member of the entourage followed by Gallagher. Reynolds is entitled to exact as much damage as she can and some of the result financially should go to Fiona Brown who has been crucified by Sharaz and his chums.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

I found this email response interesting to the conference Lerhmann was going to speak at last week:

BettinaArndt Contact <Contact@bettinaarndt.com.au>


Thu 18/04/2024 4:17 PM

He is not speaking anymore due to the fact we can’t protect our audience from the people who are out to get him. Tragic state of affairs.

All the best, Bettina


Bettina Arndt

 

[Festerz]

I found this email response interesting to the conference Lerhmann was going to speak at last week:

BettinaArndt Contact <Contact@bettinaarndt.com.au>


Thu 18/04/2024 4:17 PM

He is not speaking anymore due to the fact we can’t protect our audience from the people who are out to get him. Tragic state of affairs.

All the best, Bettina


Bettina Arndt

Cowardly BS.

This one line from Justice Lee's judgement explains why Bruce Lehrmann has cancelled his headline speaking role at the conservative MenToo cooker's “Restoring the Presumption of Innocence” conference:

 

[Xtreme]

No surprises here.

Reynolds is unwilling to accept Ms Higgins' statement and wants more.

Why should she just accept a few lines in a statement ? Ideally she should be financially compensated for BH's potshots at LR on twitter/instagram etc etc.

 

[Maggie5]

No surprises here.

Reynolds is unwilling to accept Ms Higgins' statement and wants more.

Glad taxpayer money is not going to her.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Why should she just accept a few lines in a statement ? Ideally she should be financially compensated for BH's potshots at LR on twitter/instagram etc etc.

 

[Lebbo73]

Glad taxpayer money is not going to her.

It will indirectly via BH

 

[Festerz]

No words.

Fancy Free-o: Linda Reynolds’ repast with Janet Albrechtsen

The former minister has raved about a nosh-up with a fellow Lehrmann case alumni.

www.theage.com.au

 

[FIGJAM]

Fancy Free-o: Linda Reynolds’ repast with Janet Albrechtsen

The former minister has raved about a nosh-up with a fellow Lehrmann case alumni.

www.theage.com.au

I know it's always a slow news day in 'Wait Awhile', but this is ridiculous!

 

[FIGJAM]

Which parts doesn’t Higgins agree with, cherry picking? After Lehrmann, Sharaz is the worst member of the entourage followed by Gallagher. Reynolds is entitled to exact as much damage as she can and some of the result financially should go to Fiona Brown who has been crucified by Sharaz and his chums.

As I've said in another thread, the statements from both Higgins and Reynolds need to be read with some nuance as there is a but of thrust and parry in each.

Higgins stated that her memory has been affected by the rape, that she doesn't agree with all of Lee's findings and that she acknowledged pain and suffering to Reynolds and Brown (both had emotional breakdowns in public for crying out loud!).

Nobody can be sure what part of Lee's findings Higgins disagrees with. Lee ruled against the 'hard cover-up' angle of corrupt conduct trying to bury the story and prevent her going to the police via threats to her job on multiple occasions.

The publication of accusations of corrupt conduct in putting up roadblocks and forcing a rape victim to choose between her career and justice won the Project team, like Ms Maiden, a glittering prize; but when the accusation is examined properly, it was supposition without reasonable foundation in verifiable fact; its dissemination caused a brume of confusion, and did much collateral damage – including to the fair and orderly progress of the underlying allegation of sexual assault through the criminal justice system.

Reading between the lines in Reynolds' statement, she needs Brittany to at least agree with this conclusion.

I have often wondered with Higgins, if the trauma have so significantly affected her memory as to have created something of an alternate reality, or if her significant other could have so easily led her up the garden path. I guess both are possible, but it is a big leap to go from "people being weird" around her, to Brown, Reynolds and others trying to bury her avenue to criminal charges. Notwithstanding, assuming that Higgins had some misremembering, she obviously found some things after the Maiden and Project articles that may have given her pause for thought, thus why she deleted this text (and curated a lot of other information) that was sent the day after first activating the case with the police:

Also missing was the important and truthful message to Mr Dillaway on 9 April 2019 in which Ms Higgins tells Mr Dillaway that she was “not interested in pursuing [a police complaint]”

I actually don't think it should be too hard for Higgins to concede some ground here. Maybe a very carefully worded statement from 'Mr Fix It' Zwier.

I firmly disagree with the underlined statement in your post. Reynolds should heed Lee's now famous classification of the current chain of events as an omnishambles and it hasn't stopped yet! If she can get some "common ground", her goal should be break even and then she should even wear some if need be. Otherwise Reynolds will be going back into the lion's den for her Carla Zampatti jacket and will get eaten alive. Probably not by the courts like Bruce did, but in the field of public perception.

 

[Maggie5]

It will indirectly via BH

5cents is okay.