"If not for Lisa Wilkinson’s Logies speech, Bruce Lehrmann would probably be in jail".
Monday, 22 May 2023
Staggering admission by the defence lawyer in the Brittany Higgins case.
From The Australian.
“If Ms Wilkinson had not said the things she said at the Logies, and the trial judge had not adjourned the trial for three months, I genuinely believe Bruce would have been convicted,” Whybrow says.
The barrister had agreed to lead Lehrmann’s legal team in early June 2022, with the trial due to start barely three weeks later in the ACT Supreme Court.
“What happened at the Logies, and what was said, is the matter of some contention and discussion at the inquiry. So I won’t say anything about what was said, but it’s a matter of public record that as a result of what was said … we made an application for a temporary stay that it wasn’t fair, on top of everything else, for Bruce to have to face a jury a week after.”
Whybrow points to the public statements during and after the Logies, “again, basically saying Ms Higgins is a true victim of a true crime and the trial is just a formality”. “We needed a stay in order to put some distance from that speech in the minds of any potential jurors.”
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum agreed, as she said through “gritted teeth”, and delayed the trial for three months.
Whybrow explains the delay was critical to the defence: “If it wasn’t for Ms Wilkinson’s speech, we would have gone into that trial without so much material that we subsequently came into possession of, either through chasing up disclosure or chasing up subpoenas … integral to properly understanding and challenging the complainant’s allegations.
“Most of the stuff we got, including the Moller Report, and the transcripts of six hours of Brittany Higgins being interviewed on The Project, all of that stuff we got in September. The trial was supposed to be over by the end of July, right. We would have gone into this (trial) with about 20 per cent of the stuff we needed.”
The barrister had agreed to lead Lehrmann’s legal team in early June 2022, with the trial due to start barely three weeks later in the ACT Supreme Court.
“What happened at the Logies, and what was said, is the matter of some contention and discussion at the inquiry. So I won’t say anything about what was said, but it’s a matter of public record that as a result of what was said … we made an application for a temporary stay that it wasn’t fair, on top of everything else, for Bruce to have to face a jury a week after.”
Whybrow points to the public statements during and after the Logies, “again, basically saying Ms Higgins is a true victim of a true crime and the trial is just a formality”. “We needed a stay in order to put some distance from that speech in the minds of any potential jurors.”
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum agreed, as she said through “gritted teeth”, and delayed the trial for three months.
Whybrow explains the delay was critical to the defence: “If it wasn’t for Ms Wilkinson’s speech, we would have gone into that trial without so much material that we subsequently came into possession of, either through chasing up disclosure or chasing up subpoenas … integral to properly understanding and challenging the complainant’s allegations.
“Most of the stuff we got, including the Moller Report, and the transcripts of six hours of Brittany Higgins being interviewed on The Project, all of that stuff we got in September. The trial was supposed to be over by the end of July, right. We would have gone into this (trial) with about 20 per cent of the stuff we needed.”