A judge has criticized the media over the rape charge of Brittany Higgins and a speech by TV reporter Lisa Wilkinson in the Logies, warning the court that the distinction between allegations and guilt has been “blurred”.
ACT Supreme Court President Lucy McCallum is considering whether to further delay the trial of Bruce Lehrmann, accused of raping former Liberal employee Higgins in the House of Parliament in 2019. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lisa Wilkinson won a Logie Award for her interview with former employee Brittany Higgins. Credit: Getty Images
Lehrmann’s lawyer, Steve Whybrow, has called for a temporary suspension in the case to allow publicity around Wilkinson’s speech after he won a Lodge for an interview he did with Higgins to dissipate. The trial is set to begin on Monday, June 27.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold said there was no argument on his part about the “undesirability of the media,” but argued that it could be resolved through the jury selection process and the judge’s instructions to the jurors.
“You could say, you should get out of your head everything you think you know about this case,” Drumgold told the court. “The reports on this matter are, in fact, almost without exception incorrect … almost without exception, contrary to the evidence that will be presented in this room.”
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McCallum noted that Wilkinson’s speech, in which the reporter said the Higgins story was “by far the most important job I’ve ever done,” came after stern warnings from the court and prosecutor in the Ten Network journalist and the media in general about commenting on the matter. before going to trial.
“What worries me most about this recent round is that the distinction between a complaint and a guilty plea has been blurred,” the judge said. “It’s a kind of cry for the success of good investigative journalism.”
McCallum said she was very concerned and agreed that it could be “the safest way to postpone the trial until part of it goes off.”