The rude tweet Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz doesn’t want you to see
Brittany Higgins’ fiancée fired off a tweet mocking his former colleague’s journalistic balance at Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation hearing – but he quickly removed it.
Daily Mail Australia has received an inflammatory Twitter post David Sharaz wrote in response to a tweet from Sky News reporter Caroline Marcus on Thursday afternoon.
Ms Marcus had tweeted updates from an interim hearing in NSW Federal Court on Bruce Lehrmann’s lawsuit against Lisa Wilkinson, Channel 10 and news.com.au.
At about 1:45 pm, while the hearing was still in progress, Ms. Marcus wrote a message detailing exactly what had been heard in court.
She told her followers that Wilkinson’s application to access nearly 40,000 pages of records from Mr Lehrmann’s phone from 2017 was rejected by Judge Michael Lee, who labeled the application a “fishing expedition”.
An hour later, Mr Sharaz replied in a now-deleted tweet: “I’m sure – because you’re so balanced in your reporting – you’ll soon also be offering a tweet highlighting Lehrmann’s failure to call his own lawyer . his testimony in the stands.’
The pair worked at Sky News between 2018 and 2020, before Mr Sharaz left for a media adviser role in the Prime Minister’s office.
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured outside Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday alongside Caroline Marcus, who covered for Sky News (both above)
During the interim hearing in NSW Federal Court, David Sharaz fired off a tweet criticizing Caroline Marcus (pictured). He subsequently deleted the tweet
Mr Sharaz referred to Mr Lehrmann’s former lawyer, Warwick Korn, who was due to testify on Thursday but ultimately did not appear.
Justice Lee then asked Mr Lehrmann’s current lawyer, Matthew Richardson SC, whether he agreed that it was possible to deduce that Mr Korn would not be questioned because his testimony would ‘not help his case’ .
Ms Marcus was also criticized by Ms Higgins for her coverage on the first day of the hearing, on 16 March.
The journalist tweeted: ‘Bruce Lehrmann tells court he was ‘outraged’ by the interviews of Brittany Higgins, The Project and news.com.au and wanted to ‘fight back’ against the media.
Told his girlfriend at the time that he was “a pawn” in a “bigger political hatchet.”
Ms Higgins disagreed with Ms Marcus’s emphasis on Mr Lehrmann’s allegations of a ‘political hatchet’, responding to the tweet with a reminder that News Corp – Sky’s parent company – is part of the lawsuit.
She said, “You realize NewsCorp is also being sued? With your own claim it means that your own organization was part of this ‘political hatchet’.
‘I was also a Liberal staffer and my partner worked at Sky News. I literally don’t understand this whole story.’
David Sharaz (pictured with Brittany Higgins) worked as a journalist at Sky News before leaving to become a media consultant
Ms Marcus explained that the allegations were not hers, she was simply reporting what was said on the stand.
Mrs. Higgins hit back, “Come on. Let’s take a look at your continued framing of this case in tweets since the criminal case.
“Keep cherry-picking, but know that NewsCorp’s attorneys have filed a truth defense.”
Mrs. Marcus replied, “Um yes, I’ve been reporting that all day.”
The comments Ms Marcus referred to in her tweet were made by Mr Lehrmann to his girlfriend at the time, Greta Sinclair.
Mrs. Sinclair was distraught over the televised accusations.
Mr Lehrmann told the court that he calmed her down by suggesting that his lawyer had told him he was a ‘pawn’ and was ‘part of a larger political hatchet job, and that he would get ‘millions’ in defamation.
Ms Marcus was also criticized by Ms Higgins for her coverage of the trial (pictured)
During cross-examination, Mr. Lehrmann admitted to Ten’s attorney, Matthew Collins KC, that his attorney, Mr. Korn, never said that. He made it up to comfort her.
He filed defamation lawsuits against Channel 10, Lisa Wilkinson and news.com.au in February this year over two stories in which Ms Higgins claimed a ‘male colleague’ raped her in 2019.
The broadcast and the online article were published on February 15, 2021.
Mr. Lehrmann was not named in the broadcast or the article, but his claim asserts that his identity would have been known in political circles.
He has always denied the allegations.
The intermission was about why it took him two years to file the libel lawsuit.
Applicants normally have 12 months from publication to file a libel suit, but Mr. Lehrmann’s suit was filed two years later.
His legal team has been arguing that it was unreasonable for him to start the case earlier.
Justice Lee has yet to decide whether the case will proceed.