Show Notes
It's a case that sent shockwaves around Australia and has captured the imagination of a nation for almost three years. And the bombshells have kept on coming in the latest instalment - a defamation trial brought by Bruce Lehrmann in Sydney's Federal court this week. It's a complex he said, she said case. And the job of the judge to get to the bottom of the matter, according to specialist defamation and media lawyer Nick Stagg, co-founder and principal of law firm Steedman Stagg. He joins legal affairs editor Tim Clarke, to walk him through the first week of this explosive trial. The case began in 2021, when The Project aired an interview with Brittany Higgins, a young parliamentary staffer who alleged she had been raped by a colleague in Parliament House. Her alleged rapist was not named, but according to him, and later his high-powered and highly paid legal team, anyone who knew him could put the clues together and come up with his name. The allegations set off a chain of events that had a seismic impact at the highest level of politics, the Liberal party and the law. A criminal prosecutor of Mr Lehrmann went ahead in Canberra, but fell apart in spectacular fashion last year. And now, it's Mr Lehrmann making the allegations - that Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson defamed him in the most serious of ways. For all the latest on courts and crime visit thewest.com.au. If you have a question for the team or cases you'd like explored, please get in touch. Email [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from Court in the Act
On August 2, the Linda Reynolds and Brittany Higgins defamation trial will begin in WA’s Supreme Court. Senator Reynolds is suing Higgins over a series of social media posts she claims were part of a deliberate attempt to ruin her career and reputation. Higgins argues the posts were justified, given how Senator Reynolds treated the junior staffer. Both women have something to prove and everything to lose. Reynolds has remortgaged her home to cover the enormous legal costs, and Higgins has been forced to sell her home in France to fund her defence. With careers, reputations and houses on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Joining Tim on Court In The Act is former Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Martin. Together they walk through the events leading up to the trial and reflect on why the majority of defamation cases never make it this far. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How’s about this for a guest list? The Chief Justice of Western Australia. The Attorney General of Western Australia. The former DPP of Western Australia, turned Supreme Court judge. Two of the richest people in Australia. The former chairman of the West Coast Eagles. More lawyers. More judges. Former judges. You would think that only the most pressing and potentially career defining legal issue would command such an audience – after business hours no less. But last week, this gathering of Perth’s lawful Illuminati did not take place in a court, or in an office, but in a theatre. The Heath Ledger Theatre – to witness the premier of the Black Swan State Theatre Company’s production of Prima Facie. A legal drama, created by playwright Suzie Miller, which has not only taken the theatre world by storm for years. But has also actually helped shift legal thinking and teaching, on the everlong debate surrounding sexual assault, consent – and how those issues are dealt with within the courtroom. Joining Tim on Court in the Act this week to discuss the production, the reaction – and the legacy – is Kate Champion, the director of Perth’s production of Prima Facie. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A decade since Amy Wensley’s suspicious death, her family are no closer to answers. The mother of two little girls was found in her bedroom with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Despite first responders’ suspicions, within one-hour detectives deemed Amy’s death a suicide. What Police did - or didn’t do - in those crucial first hours have been the subject of intense scrutiny. Joining Tim on Court in the Act is Anna Davey, Amy’s Aunt. Together they step through the tragic days and hours leading up to Amy’s death and the real reason they can’t accept the Police case. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Thirty years ago this coming weekend, The Sunday Times fully exposed paedophile priest Reverend Michael Roderick Painter for the first time. Painter had been an Anglican priest in Perth and beyond since the early 60s. He was revered for his charisma and charm, his pastoral skill, his common touch, and was adored by his parishioners and fellow clergy alike. So much so that when it emerged that he had been accused of – and then admitted – sexually abusing a 16 year-old boy, his church elders could seemingly not do enough to support him. Until he ended his own life on the same day as his name appeared on the front page, in June 1994. Despite being a self-confessed paedophile, Archbishop Peter Carnley led a public outcry against the newspaper, for their “exaggerated distortions” in reporting the court outcome. He clearly claimed the reporting had contributed to Painter’s suicide. Three decades on from that report, another article will appear in The Sunday Times this weekend about Reverend Michael Painter. It will reveal that finally, the Anglican Church has now finally admitted that Painter was not just a “fleeting” offender – he was the most prolific paedophile priest WA’s Anglican church has ever had. But it will also show that despite their own admissions, the church is still fighting his victims every step of the way. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Who, how and why. Put brutally, those are the three questions a coroner has to answer when investigating a death. Seemingly simple questions. But sometimes so hard to answer. Sometimes impossible. In the coming weeks and months in Western Australia, headlines will be writ large about inquests set to be held. Cleveland Dodd – the young man who died by his own hand in the custody of WA’s Department of Justice. JC – the young indigenous mother shot by a police officer in Geraldton. And Lisa Govan – the young woman last seen outside a Kalgoorlie bikie den in 1999. And then never seen again. All inquiries which all the families involved hope will provide some answers, some truth out of death. Joining Tim on Court in the Act is Noor Blumer – director of Blumer’s lawyers whose practitioners are well practised in representing those hoping for answers out of an inquest. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.