Top criminal lawyers have rejected claims by Katy Gallagher that discussing Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations in parliament would discourage women from reporting their own assaults across the country.
Senator Gallagher has faced a barrage of questions over whether she misled Parliament about what she knew about Ms Higgins’ allegations following the publication of private texts between her and her fiancé David Sharaz.
Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer claimed that women across Australia who had considered raising allegations would be put off by the toxic fallout from the Higgins case.
“I’m afraid the message for this for women who want to come forward is ‘beware,'” she told the Senate on Tuesday.
“Women who can now choose to keep silent about allegations of serious sexual or violent abuse in order to suppress the trauma and feel that justice will always elude them.
Beleaguered Chancellor of the Exchequer Katy Gallagher (pictured) faces a barrage of questions over whether she misled parliament over her knowledge of the Higgins case
“Women who may feel that the system is not properly protecting their well-being and is letting them down. And I’m not going to stand for that.’
But now two major criminal lawyers have rejected Senator Gallagher’s suggestion that stepping forward would scare other women into silence.
Former prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC rejected the idea that attention to Higgins would prevent women from reporting sexual assault.
“Not in the least,” she said The Australian.
“It can remind women to pursue criminal charges through the criminal justice system, which will always protect their anonymity, and not take the option of disclosing it even before the criminal justice system kicks in,” she said.
Ms Higgins, a former Liberal staffer, claims she was raped by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the parliamentary office of her then boss, Linda Reynolds, after a night out.
She first went public with an interview with The Project in 2021, before the criminal trial – which later failed due to juror misconduct – had even begun.
Former prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC (pictured) has dismissed the idea that the attention to Higgins would prevent women from reporting assault
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.
Ms Cunneen, who recently defended convicted rapist and disgraced ex-NRL player Jarryd Hayne, said the problem with Ms Higgins’s case was political interference, which might not have happened had she remained anonymous.
“Most women benefit from the major reform that has been available for many years now, which is that their names remain anonymous and many identifying characteristics remain anonymous for the duration of the procedure,” she said.
“If this had happened in this case, there would be nothing to complain about. Crime must pass through the criminal justice system without the possibility of political interference.
‘(Mrs. Higgins) even said it herself, that this story would be about politics and not about her.
“But that never would have happened if the complainant had chosen to remain anonymous in the first place.”
It is believed Ms Cunneen was referring to some of the comments Ms Higgins had made during the leaked five hour pre-interview lunch she had with her boyfriend David Sharaz, Lisa Wilkinson and her Channel Ten producer Angus Llewellyn in a Sydney hotel room in January 2021.
Brittany Higgins is pictured with her boyfriend, David Sharaz
Katy Gallagher (right) has declined to reveal whether Mr Sharaz (left) gave her a full transcript of Brittany Higgins’ interview with The Project ahead of release
At the meeting, Ms. Higgins admitted that her accusations would become politicised.
“I was always very conscious of the fact that the moment this was reported, this was going to be a story,” Ms Higgins said.
“Not because of me, not because of Bruce, but based on a) where it happened and b) who I worked for.
“And I was always hyper aware of the media commodification of my story and I was afraid of it.”
Ms. Cunneen’s comments resonated with other esteemed criminal justice colleagues.
Sharon Kermath, who has worked as both a defense attorney and prosecutor, said the “political battle in parliament over issues of the Higgins case is unlikely to affect the victims who come forward.”
“I don’t think it will hurt anyone because the prosecution is supporting the victims and lawyers are supporting the victims in such a delicate situation,” Ms Kermath said.