Lisa Wilkinson would not give a speech at the Logie Awards if she was tipped off by ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold, according to a statement released by a public inquiry this week.
In 2022 Wilkinson won a logie for her Project interview with Brittany Higgins but the speech triggered a postponement of the trial.
Director of Public Prosecutions Drumgold this week told the Public Inquiry that he warned Wilkinson that Bruce Lehrmann’s defense team could file an application for a stay if there was more publicity.
In a statement released by the inquiry, Wilkinson said: ‘If Mr Drumgold had told me not to give the speech, I would have followed that advice.
“Had Mr Drumgold told me that ‘publicity’ posed a risk to the process, I would have questioned the matter further, especially given the publicity that had already occurred regarding the Logicaland the inherent publicity that might result from being nominated for a Logie Award, regardless of any speeches given by me.
Wilkinson said she “specifically” brought up the talk with Drumgold “because I was concerned to ensure that it had no impact on the process in any way, and I trusted that she would adequately advise or warn me of any perceived risks.”
“The only clear warning I was given was not to mention the trial, and I didn’t,” he said in the statement.
Drumgold admitted as evidence that he misread the exchange saying, “I thought it was someone telling me they were in contention for an award.”
10 lawyers contacted Mr Drumgold five times between June and December last year, begging him to clear Wilkinson of any wrongdoing in the public eye.
When asked by his lawyer Mark Tedeschi why he did not make any statements to exonerate Wilkinson, he replied: “That would have been completely inappropriate.”
“I would have been, rightly, publicly reprimanded for it.
“It was a trial, not a TV personality’s reputation.”
Bruce Lehrmann has consistently denied allegations that he raped colleague and political staffer Brittany Higgins in the office of then Defense Industry Minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any activity had occurred.
Source: The age, Daily mail
