Lisa Wilkinson’s scathing letter sent to Sunrise over a TV report about Brittany Higgins
Lawyers for Lisa Wilkinson have fired a barrage of legal letters to media companies in the wake of Seven’s Spotlight interview with Bruce Lehrmann.
One of the media outlets notified is Sunrise’s top-rated breakfast program – Seven, which Wilkinson competed with for a decade as co-anchor of Nine’s Today show.
The former Project presenter was outraged by the TV and newspaper coverage after Lehrmann broke his silence on June 4 over allegations he raped Brittany Higgins in a parliamentary office in 2019.
Mr. Lehrmann has always categorically denied Ms. Higgins’ allegations, and they were never proven in court after a mistrial.
Spotlight broadcast leaked audio of a five-hour meeting between Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz with Wilkinson and The Project producer Angus Llewellyn.
The explosive audio revealed that the four were going through Ms Higgins’ allegations and plotting the media and political blitz that would follow her February 2021 disclosure.
The recordings had been seized by the Australian Federal Police under a search warrant on June 20, 2021, but were never submitted as evidence in Mr Lehrmann’s trial.
They were also never produced as evidence during the ACT Board of Inquiry’s investigation last month into the investigation and prosecution of the case.
Lawyers for Lisa Wilkinson (left with Brittany Higgins) have fired a barrage of legal letters to media companies in the wake of Seven’s Spotlight interview with Bruce Lehrmann
Bruce Lehrmann broke his silence on Spotlight on June 4, two years after he was accused of raping Brittany Higgins in a parliamentary office in 2019. He has always denied the allegations.
Newly published court documents reveal that Ms Wilkinson’s lawyers claim ‘to our understanding’ that the recordings were obtained in ‘apparent contempt of court’.
The lawyers added that the Spotlight broadcast “amounted to undue pressure” on witnesses in Mr Lehrmann’s ongoing defamation actions against Ten and the ABC “which may also constitute contempt of court”.
In an email to Spotlight’s executive producer Mark Llewellyn, Wilkinson’s lawyers accused the program of deliberately not contacting her for comment to avoid legal action that may have blocked the broadcast.
“The audio recording was a document produced under subpoena in criminal proceedings and was not filed in court,” the June 6 email said.
“The Seven Network must have known this when it used it.
“We conclude … you knew an injunction was inevitable if our client came to the attention of this audio recording before it aired.”
Two days later, Gillis Delaney, Wilkinson’s law firm, emailed Seven again to say they had no response, accusing the show of making “serious and false allegations about our client.”
The second email adds: ‘We believe those allegations were made using documents produced in the R v Lehrmann criminal trial.
“Those documents were protected in the sense that they could not be used for purposes other than those proceedings unless they were presented as evidence in court.
“Misuse of such documents is a serious matter because it undermines the administration of justice.
“This conduct by the Seven Network appears to have been deliberate and calculated.
“It is unbelievable that a 90-minute program has been prepared, apparently over many weeks, if not months, and at no point have our customer or Network 10 been contacted to try and get their comment.”
The lawyers also alleged that a reported text message from Wilkinson’s husband Peter FitzSimons to Brittany Higgins was “forged.”
They said: ‘Mr Peter FitzSimons was not contacted prior to the publication of what you now know is a forged text message.
“You contested him without even performing the most basic checks.
“You have known this for two days and have done nothing to rectify this egregious error, nor have you apologized to our client’s husband.
“The Seven Network, and its journalists and you as an executive producer have violated your obligations as journalists.”
The email states that Network 10 has filed a complaint with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) about the Spotlight show.
It adds: ‘We agree and endorse and will file a separate complaint on behalf of Ms Wilkinson and Mr FitzSimons.
“We request that you publicly apologize to our client and her husband and withdraw the false allegations against them.”
Brittany Higgins is pictured during her interview on The Project in February 2021, when she first went public with her allegations against Bruce Lehrmann
Her lawyers also disagreed with a report on Sunrise alleging that Wilkinson had “coached” Ms. Higgins and that Wilkinson had received an “angry” letter from Ms. Higgins.
The former Project host angrily denied both allegations, insisting, “Ms. Wilkinson has no record of a letter in the terms described in the report.”
The law firm also targeted the Australian newspaper for apparently having access to previously unreleased text messages from Ms Higgins.
“The article published by the Australian last night appears to acknowledge that the text messages ‘derived from material produced during the investigation of Bruce Lehrmann…’,” the lawyers’ letter reads.
It adds that the leaked texts “cannot be used” in unrelated proceedings without “court permission.”
Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial was dropped in October after misconduct by a juror. All charges were dropped in December over concerns about Ms Higgins’ mental health.
He has since filed defamation lawsuits against ABC and Network 10. A third lawsuit against News Life Media was settled out of court.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Seven for comment.