Brittany Higgins has blasted Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds’ name to make it against the law for alleged victims to make use of the media or parliamentary boards to air allegations warning it might silence alleged victims.
In a submission to the Sofronoff Inquiry, the previous Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has argued that the ACT Crimes Act must be amended to discourage people from utilizing the media and/or Parliamentary boards in relation to an alleged felony offence that ought correctly be the topic of the felony justice processes.
The submission isn’t public however was promptly leaked to the media after it was submitted and printed in The Australian.
Senator Reynolds factors to a bit of the NSW Crimes Act within the submission that makes it an offence for anybody who is aware of or believes {that a} severe indictable offence has been dedicated and fails to report it to police.
“Imagine being the person earnestly attempting to change the Crime Act to make it illegal for alleged sexual assault survivors to talk about their lived experience?’’ Ms Higgins said in response.
“As opposed to, you know, reforming the justice system to actually prosecuting perpetrators.”
“This proposal completely undermines all the crucial work done by the #LetHerSpeak campaign and the #March4Justice movement.
“Instead of solving the problem, there are people who would prefer to just silence victims.”
Let Her Speak founder and spokeswoman Nina Funnell stated she didn’t agree with Senator Reynolds’ concept.
“Overwhelmingly, sexual assault and rape survivors do not report to the police,’’ she said.
“Up to 90 per cent of sexual assault survivors will never report their offence to the police for a raft of reasons, many of which have to do with the fact that the criminal justice process is not fit for purpose for sexual assault survivors.
“We know that putting the onus and blame on rape survivors for not reporting to the police doesn’t make him any more likely to report to authorities. What it does do is redirect focus away from the problems in the system which needs fixing. By heaping blame and shame onto the victim.
“If we want more survivors reporting to the authorities, then we need to take a serious critical look at what is not working about the policing and criminal justice system.”
Ms Higgins went public with a declare she was sexually assaulted in Senator Reynolds parliamentary workplace in March 2019 two years in the past.
Another Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann was charged however pleaded not responsible. He has at all times denied wrongdoing, and the cost was dropped by the DPP after a mistrial.
The newest change comes simply weeks after Ms Higgins claimed that Senator Reynolds “continues to harass me through the media and in the parliament”.
“This has been going on for years now. It is time to stop,” Ms Higgins stated.
In response, Senator Reynolds’ attorneys despatched Ms Higgins a authorized issues discover – which is step one in lodging a defamation lawsuit.
Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins’ fiance, David Sharaz, for defamation over a number of tweets that he posted and has beforehand despatched authorized letters to Ms Higgins writer.
During the trial, Senator Reynolds’ chief of workers Fiona Brown stated that her boss needed the matter reported to police.
In an interview with the Weekend Australian this yr, Ms Brown says Senator Linda Reynolds needed to report the alleged rape with or with out Ms Higgins permission.
“Am I supposed to go and accuse a young man of a criminal offence without the female telling me she was raped? ”,’’ Ms Brown stated.
Fearing she would put her profession on the road by disobeying a minister’s path, she remained uncomfortable reporting the matter to police with out permission from Higgins. Instead, she rang the Department of Finance supervisor Lauren Barons.
“I rang Lauren. She stated, ‘No, you can’t try this. You’ve acquired to present the lady company. It’s her proper to make a report back to the police.’
“I stated to Barons: ‘I might have to come to talk to you about my termination this afternoon. In my mind, she [Reynolds] was within her rights to sack me.”
This was the reason she obtained written advice on how the matter was handled, to justify refusing the request to report the matter without Ms Higgins consent.
The advice noted that “ultimately any decision as to whether to lodge a police report or pursue any other form of complaint relating to this matter would be a personal choice of the person involved”.
In the latest material to leak from the evidence brief prepared for the ACT Supreme Court trial, WhatsApp texts between David Ms Higgins partner David Sharaz and a producer for The Project Angus Llewllyn have been provided to the Daily Mail.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Channel 10 and host Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over the original interview that was broadcast and Mr Llewllyn is likely to be called as a witness during the defamation trial in November.
Lawyers acting for Mr Lehrmann in the defamation matter have firmly denied any involvement in the mysterious leaks that have previously included persons unknown providing CCTV of the night in question and audio recordings of police witnesses to Channel 7’s Spotlight program.
In the most recent leaks, Mr Sharaz texts the Ten producer Angus Llewllyn to say that Brittany Higgins ‘stress-grabbed’ a $90 bottle of Bollinger champagne from a resort room after her five-hour dialogue with Lisa Wilkinson.
The morning after the interview at 7.34am, Mr Sharaz despatched one other textual content to Mr Llewellyn: ‘Hey mate, heads up. Brittany stress grabbed the closest bottle of alcohol last night after you both left and was a little panicked.’
“I seemed and it was the Bollinger,’ he added, earlier than including a brand new paragraph that learn: ‘I’m clearly completely happy to pay for that one. I seemed and it was like $90.’
The bottle was nevertheless paid for by Mr Sharaz.
“I discover it curious that the Daily Mail is continuous to publish textual content messages that have been by no means tendered in court docket and may have by no means been within the public area,’’ Mr Sharaz stated in response.
Source: www.news.com.au
