Brittany Higgins is a rape victim who said in public in March 2019 that a male colleague in the office of her boss, then-Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds, raped her.
The trial of the man who is accused of sexually assaulting Higgins in Parliament House was put off because of Lisa Wilkinson’s “ill-advised” comments at the Logie Awards.
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What Happened With Brittany Higgins Inside The Ministerial Office? Wikipedia Bio
Brittany Higgins told two news organisations that she was raped on March 22, 2019, late at night. It happened in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds, who was the Minister of Defence Industry at the time, in the ministerial wing of Parliament House. An unnamed male colleague did it after security guards let the two of them in.
Brittany said she got very drunk at a work party and got into a cab with a coworker, thinking they would go to their own homes. Instead, she was taken to Parliament House and raped while she was falling in and out of consciousness.
Higgins was found in the minister’s office early in the morning. He was half-naked, drunk, and confused.
Reynolds, who was Brittany’s boss at the time, fired the accused attacker on March 26, 2019, four days after the alleged rape. This was not because of the alleged crime, but because of a “security violation.”
She said Reynolds had left her because the event was controversial on a political level during an election year. She told the police about the rape, but she dropped the case in April 2019 because she was afraid it would get her fired from her job.
Brittany Higgins Suspect Trial Delayed By Lisa Wilkinson’s Speech
In June 2022, the trial was put off again because the court said that Lisa Wilkinson’s speech at the Logie Awards and the discussion that followed it “erased” the line between an accusation and a verdict of guilt.
Justice McCallum says that on June 15, Lisa met with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, to talk about the evidence she would use in court. Lisa said at the conference that she had been nominated for a Logie for her reporting on Higgins’ claim on The Project last year.
The TV reporter was told not to talk about Brittany’s case in public because it could cause the trial to be pushed back. Even though she was told not to, Lisa went up on stage after being named Best News or Public Affairs Report.
On Tuesday, Justice McCallum told the court that she had no choice but to delay the trial because of the statement and the attention it got afterward. Matthew Collins, the head of the Australian Bar Association, says that Lisa could be looked into and face legal consequences.
David Saraz, Brittany Higgins’s partner, said this about her case:
David Sharaz is Brittany Higgins’s boyfriend. He is a journalist and used to work for the government. David has criticised a study that didn’t find evidence that the prime minister’s office gave information against him. He has also promised that he and Brittany won’t be scared or silenced.
After Morrison’s chief of staff said he couldn’t say for sure that the action in question happened, Sharaz called John Kunkel’s report “PMO staff defending themselves.”
David told the Guardian Australia that the chief of staff for the prime minister had “examined his own office and found it to be running well.”
Higgins’ partner said, “The fact that these claims have been made is an important reminder that [the prime minister’s] staff must hold themselves to the highest standards.”
Sharaz said that Labor was criticising the administration both for not putting out the report and for putting it out.
