Recordings of a five-hour meeting involving Brittany Higgins and Lisa Wilkinson that were leaked to the media have been referred to police.Credit:Janie Barrett,Alex Ellinghausen
Thomson Geer law firm partner Marlia Saunders,who is acting for Network Ten in Lehrmann’s defamation proceedings,made a complaint to ACT Policing last Wednesday about material issued under subpoena for his criminal trial being aired in a televised interview with the Seven Network last week.
“I asked them to investigate the suspected breach of the implied undertaking given that documents produced under subpoena to the ACT Supreme Court ... criminal proceedings appear to have been provided to various media organisations contrary to the implied undertaking,” Saunders said.
Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to raping Higgins in the office of then-defence minister Linda Reynolds in the early hours of March 23,2019,in a trial that was aborted in October last year due to juror misconduct,with the proceedings being ultimately discontinued in December.
ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold,who dropped the case against Lehrmann,was due to return to work on Tuesday after taking leave during a public inquiry into his and others’ handling of the trial,but that leave has now been extended until June 30 at his request.
ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold has had his leave extended.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Drumgold has come under fire over multiple aspects of his conduct during the case,and questions hang over his future.
ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said the inquiry would report to the territory government by July 31.