Lisa Wilkinson is pictured giving her Logies speech last year
Lisa Wilkinson sent multiple emails to the top prosecutor in charge of the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial, begging him to tell the public that her disastrous Logies speech was not contemptuous of the court.
Shane Drumgold, ACT’s director of prosecutions, told a special investigative committee on Monday his account of the fallout from Wilkinson’s speech that delayed Lehrmann’s rape trial last year.
Mr Drumgold told the inquiry that he first responded to Wilkinson’s Logies speech last June by texting his junior counsel something along the lines of ‘oh no’.
The speech delayed Mr Lehrmann’s trial and caused a furore in the media, with reports of the hearings in the press ‘affecting her personally’.
On Monday, Mr Drumgold was rebuked for not responding to emails from Channel Ten lawyer Marlia Saunders asking him to specifically clear her name. He argued that he “probably” didn’t respond because he was concerned about Brittany Higgins’ mental health at the time and felt the emails didn’t warrant a response.
In the emails, Wilkinson’s lawyer, Ms Saunders, referred to an earlier conversation in which she claimed that Mr Drumgold had agreed to clear Wilkinson’s name.
The attorney’s emails also claimed that Wilkinson did not believe she was warned about giving her Logies speech, but that media reports falsely suggested she was the result of a comment made by the presiding judge.
Ms Saunders said Wilkinson had been treated ‘unfairly’ by the DPP’s office and had given up her role as presenter of The Project due to media backlash after the speech on 19 June last year.
When Erin Lubbermans, counsel for the inquiry, asked why he had never told the public that he did not believe Wilkinson’s speech was contempt of court, Mr. Drumgold said, “I’m not a publicist, I’m the director of the public ministry. Persecutions.’
Shane Drumgold (pictured), ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions, told a committee of inquiry on Monday that he had not looked at television awards on June 19 last year
Mr Drumgold then said it was not his responsibility to rectify calls for contempt charges against Wilkinson because the information was not on the public record.
“What you are proposing is that I, as the DPP, should monitor the media and counter false media,” he told the inquiry.
Ms. Lubbermans and retired judge Walter Sofronoff, who is leading the investigation, intervened and said that was not the suggestion at all.
Mr Sofronoff said: ‘[In the email] Ms Saunders says her client believes she has been treated unfairly. You don’t get that every day, do you?’
Mr Drumgold said he did not often receive such emails.
During her Logies acceptance speech last year, Wilkinson said she “believed” Ms Higgins and generally suggested that the former Liberal staffer’s claims were true.
The speech, which was broadcast nationally, eventually led to Mr. Lehrmann’s lawyers successfully filing for the case to be stayed because Wilkinson’s words may have biased a jury against him.
Mr Lehrmann was charged with sexual intercourse without consent in August 2021, and the jury was scheduled to meet for the first time on June 27, 2022 – eight days after Wilkinson’s speech. Mr. Lehrmann had pleaded not guilty and has consistently maintained his innocence.
Following her Logies win, media reports claimed that Wilkinson was adequately warned about giving public speeches about the rape trial, but that she ignored those warnings and went ahead with her speech anyway.
There were more calls on social media to charge the journalist with contempt of court. On Monday, the inquiry heard Wilkinson claim those reports were false and that she doesn’t believe she was warned.
In addition, Mr. Drumgold agreed that he did not believe Wilkinson had committed an offence.
Bruce Lehrmann can be seen in the back of the committee of inquiry on Monday
Earlier, Mr Drumgold told the inquiry that he had not looked at the television awards on 19 June last year and did not know the contents of Wilkinson’s speech until he looked it up.
During her acceptance speech, the TV journalist said she “believed” Ms Higgins and generally suggested that the former Liberal staffer’s claims were true.
Mr Lehrmann was charged with sexual intercourse without consent in August 2021, and the jury was scheduled to meet for the first time on June 27, 2022 – eight days after Wilkinson’s speech.
The speech, which was broadcast nationally, eventually led to Mr. Lehrmann’s lawyers unsuccessfully filing for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that Wilkinson’s words may have biased a jury against him.
Instead, the case was postponed. Mr. Lehrmann had pleaded not guilty and has consistently maintained his innocence.
On Monday, Mrs Longbottom KC asked Mr Drumgold if he was aware of the speech on the morning of 20 June.
“I think I was warned, I don’t quite remember, I may have received a text warning me something had happened, it could have been from Skye,” he said, referring to his junior counsel at the trial , Skye Jerome .
When asked what his response was, Mr Drumgold said it was probably words along the lines of ‘oh no’.
“I was given enough information to conclude that something had gone wrong,” he recalls.
Mr Drumgold was also questioned about a Microsoft Teams meeting he had with Wilkinson, a lawyer for Channel 10, and Ms Jerome on June 15 – four days prior to the Logie awards.
During the investigation, Wilkinson overheard telling him that she had prepared a speech in case she won, and attempted to read it aloud during the meeting as a way of asking if she needed to make changes for legal reasons.
Brittany Higgins alleged that Bruce Lehrmann raped her in Parliament House in 2019. He pleaded not guilty. She is pictured, left, out of court in 2022
Mr Drumgold was adamant in warning the journalist that any publicity about the case could jeopardize the trial, but did not listen to her speech.
When the head of the investigation asked Walter Sofronoff why he didn’t listen to her speech, the prosecutor said he thought she was “bragging” about her nomination.
When Mrs. Longbottom asked why else Wilkinson would have tried to read him her speech, Mr. Drumgold said, “I don’t know.”
“Honestly, when I heard it, I thought it was Mrs. Wilkinson pointing out she’d like a Logie,” he continued.
Mr. Sofronoff interjected, “Did you think she was bragging about her nomination?”
Mr Drumgold replied, ‘From that taste, yes.’
The inquiry, which is the territory’s version of a royal commission, will examine interactions between prosecutors and ACT police in relation to the charge against Mr Lehrmann, and the decisions to proceed with an initial trial and then not proceed with a new process.
Conflict arose between the ACT Police Department and prosecutors over whether it was appropriate for the police to question Ms. Higgins a second time. There was also ‘confusion’ over whether Mr Lehrmann should be charged.
Wilkinson won a Logie award for news and current affairs for her interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project in February 2021, in which the former parliamentary aide first made her allegations of sexual assault against Mr Lehrmann.
The ACT government launched the investigation following allegations by police and prosecutors about each other’s conduct during Mr Lehrmann’s 12-day rape trial.