Parliament House sexual assault and harassment allegations

[David]

^ The same system of justice that tried Pell, since you asked.

With that one, from afar, it felt like there was room for reasonable doubt. Here, for me, it's not so much the fact that Lehrmann got off but why. If Higgins herself decided she'd had enough and dropped the case, that's fair enough, but it seems like the decision was made for her?

[stui magpie]

My read is that following the ordeal she was put through in testifying, being rigorously cross examined and having every bit of it playing out in the media, she's being treated for mental health issues and that 2 separate specialists have provided their opinion that proceeding with a retrial would be detrimental to her mental health, regardless of whether she takes the stand again or not.

That advice has been accepted and the trial dropped.

I'm not clear if that means the charges are dropped or if it counts as acquittal or what.

[watt price tully]

Agreed

[What'sinaname]

[swoop42]

Personally I believe the allegations are very likely true and the accused has gotten away with it.

Leaving aside the testimony of Ms. Higgins and the fact she was discovered naked in an office while seemingly still heavily intoxicated hours after the alleged rape the biggest indicator of guilt to me was the fact that the accused (despite being the one who lead Ms. Higgins to Parliament House under the guise of needing to pick something up) was seen hurrying from the scene just 45 minutes after arriving with his demeanour described as strange.

That stinks of someone knowing he's just committed a crime and wanting to leave the scene as quickly as possible.

If he was innocent then why would he leave a work colleague and someone he was reportedly sweet on in a drunken and dishevelled state at their place of work after being the one responsible for her being there to begin with?

Doesn't ring true for me and surely any half decent person with nothing to hide would try and get her safely home in the back of a taxi and/or ask for assistance from the security guards if she was to intoxicated to walk or had passed out.

While I can appreciate the reasoning behind the decision and the prosecutor wanting to safeguard the mental health of Ms.Higgins I guess the question still remains about letting an alleged rapist walk without another trial and how that could potentially make other women less safe in the future if he was indeed guilty.

[think positive]

Well hopefully that stink will see him out in the cold, surely he’s unemployable with that in public record? Banish him to the mail room equivalent,

The laws a joke and it’s still very much a mans world.

[David]

[David]

Well hopefully that stink will see him out in the cold, surely he’s unemployable with that in public record? Banish him to the mail room equivalent,

The laws a joke and it’s still very much a mans world.

It's true that his career as a political staffer, at any rate, is surely over (and like most of those guys, he undoubtedly had broader political ambitions, which are now obviously stone dead). But while that might be some comfort to Higgins, that's not particularly satisfying in a general sense because people's livelihoods and reputations shouldn't be based on the general public's armchair detective work and gut feelings, as much as most of us likely share Swoop's assumptions here. We do need a proper system for ascertaining guilt or innocence for sexual assault cases; the problem is that the legal system is largely failing to deliver that at the moment.

[stui magpie]

[eddiesmith]

It’s disappointing for all parties but I never felt this case ever had any chance once Higgins decided to go for trial by media.

Guilty or not, Lerhmann had been found guilty by the court of public opinion and was never a chance of a fair trial.

But if Higgins aim was to bring down the government for not supporting her then she succeeded.

[stui magpie]

I guess this also puts the kibosh on her book deal and any career in public advocacy.

Hope for her sake she makes a full recovery and has a happy life, likely out of the spotlight.

[David]

[stui magpie]

What happened to the thread ?

Anyway, Samantha Maiden writes a very good article about the whole mess.

https://www.news.com.au/national/simple ... 74ed5ad07f

Somewhere, lost in the vortex of thousands of Brittany Higgins’ text messages being leaked to media outlets, is this simple truth.

Whatever you think of how Ms Higgins, in her own words, “weaponised” her own story, nobody deserves to have the private contents of their phone disgorged across the media.

It is a terrifying precedent if we are to accept that the price of ever speaking to the media is that your entire phone is “fair game”.

Particularly when you consider that the ones who had access to her phone, and the ability to leak stuff, were member of the Federal Police.

I don't know whether she was raped or not, but it's looking like her and her boyfriend definitely went through a planned process before the public announcement to "weaponise" whatever happened to her own advantage.

[What'sinaname]

I have no issue as it exposes corruption in Parliament.

[David]

<Just a general note to avoid any potentially defamatory accusations or suggestions while discussing this topic. Thanks, David for BBMods.>