Christian Porter threatened with legal action from Jo Dyer

A friend of Christian Porter’s accuser is threatening him with legal action claiming he defamed her in the speech he used to signal the end of his own lawsuit against the ABC.

Christian Porter is being threatened with a new legal action by a friend of his accuser a day after he settled with the ABC.

It comes as heavily redacted court documents reveal private conversations between those at the centre of the legal saga.

The former Attorney-General dropped his defamation lawsuit against the ABC on Monday claiming he’d forced the broadcaster into a “humiliating backdown”.

The ABC did not apologise, pay damages or take down an article that Mr Porter claimed identified him as the subject of a historical rape claim from a woman known as Kate.

Kate took her own life in 2020 after declining to be interviewed by police. Mr Porter denied all wrongdoing and launched legal action after the article was published in February.

Solicitor Rebekah Giles and Christian Porter leave a press conference at the Queens Square Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

Mr Porter stood outside the Federal Court in Sydney and said he believed one moment was “pivotal” in forcing the ABC to the bargaining table.

That was when Kate’s friend, Jo Dyer, told the court she had deleted messages between herself and Louise Milligan about the allegations.

Mr Porter said, in his view, there was incontrovertible evidence that Ms Milligan had “coached” Ms Dyer to delete important communications and that “shook” the ABC.

One day later Ms Dyer responded with a legal letter to the former Attorney-General.

“Mr Porter has now twice impugned my honesty and integrity,” Ms Dyer said in a statement dated June 1.

She described the allegation she’d been “coached” as “absurd”.

“(Multiple people including Ms Milligan) encouraged me to treat all communications with our dear friend Kate, and the allegation she made against Mr Porter, with the care and respect she and they warranted,” Ms Dyer said.

Christian Porter speaking to the media at the Queens Square Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

“There was nothing improper, illegal or sinister in my decisions to save or delete messages, decisions that were taken well before Mr Porter launched his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the ABC.”

Ms Dyer said her legal team, Marque Lawyers, had sent a concerns notice to Mr Porter about his “continuing defamatory comments”.

She put him on notice that, if she launched legal action, she “would see them through to their conclusion”.

Ms Dyer, last week, won a legal challenge against Mr Porter’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC.

Ms Chrysanthou, the Federal Court found, likely came into possession of confidential information from Ms Dyer months before she took Mr Porter’s case.

The court ruled Ms Chrysanthou could not continue to represent the politician in his defamation trial. That was a short lived victory for Ms Dyer as Mr Porter’s lawsuit ended just days later.

The court, on Tuesday, released heavily redacted documents from the Dyer v Chrysanthou case with black boxes covering the confidential information known by those close to Kate.

The only unredacted statement comes from Suzanne Maree Peters in which she says she was Mr Porter’s school friend and also part of the debating circuit in which he met Kate.

Ms Peters, in her statement, says she took her daughter to a play date only to discover the person who answered the door was Ms Dyer.

The two women had met on the high school debating circuit and both knew Kate.

Ms Peters said Kate’s death came up in conversation as did Kate’s allegations against Mr Porter.

Ms Peters told Ms Dyer she was surprised by the allegations saying she felt they were “unlikely” and she had known the young Mr Porter as part of her nerdy, friendly group at school.

Ms Peters said Ms Dyer told her that “Kate’s friends see that Christian had the career that Kate should have had”.

The allegations were “seedy and sordid”, Ms Peters said, and she wished she never had been told.

Ms Peters said she told Ms Dyer that 4 Corners had contacted her but she thought they were “looking for dirt on Christian” when they mentioned inappropriate behaviour at the debating championships.

She said she told Ms Dyer she had contacted Mr Porter to let him know but decided she would not tell him about Kate’s allegations after speaking with Ms Dyer.

ABC defence in Porter case could be a ‘constitutional issue’

The ABC’s “scandalous” legal defence to the defamation case brought against it by former Attorney-General Christian Porter could become a “constitutional issue” as media organisations fight for the material to be released.

News Corp and Nine have already begun their challenge to the demand by Mr Porter that the ABC’s documents it had filed in its defence be permanently removed from the Federal Court files.

On Tuesday, Shane Dowling, publisher of the controversial Kangaroo Court website, applied to intervene and argue that the suppression order over the material be lifted.

Mr Dowling told Justice Jayne Jagot that he was not just doing it for himself.

“There is a constitutional issue over suppressing that material” he said.

The issue may now draw in attorneys general from around the country as the case was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Christian Porter speaks to the media after Monday’s court sitting. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

The defamation case itself ended on Monday when Mr Porter and the ABC came to a settlement with each claiming the other side had backed down.

Mr Porter had sued the ABC after it published an article titled “Scott Morrison, senators and the AFP told of historical rape allegation against Cabinet Minister” in February this year.

The politician alleged the article identified him — without using his name — and falsely defamed him by implying he “brutally raped” a 16-year-old-girl in 1988.

He denied all wrongdoing.

The woman, known only as Kate, took her life in 2020 after declining to be interviewed by NSW detectives.