‘I’ll stick that f---ing camera up your f---ing arse’: Former lawyer Pat Lennon’s tirade outside Melbourne court

A former lawyer who is trying to blame his friend for planting meth in his shoulder bag has exploded at media outside a Melbourne court.

Pat Lennon outside Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Controversial ex-lawyer Pat Lennon told police, “I am a lawyer, you don’t have to search me”, before officers found a bag of meth on him, a court has heard.

Hava Brandman was with Mr Lennon when police allegedly found 11g of methamphetamines in his shoulder bag, in July 2020.

The woman, who Mr Lennon is trying to pin his drug possession charge on, told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court she was “afraid” and had only made a statement about the incident last month because he “asked me not to talk to police for all this time”.

“He’s a lawyer, I thought he would give me the right advice. That’s the reason I didn’t contact police,” she told the court on Thursday.

Mr Lennon took issue with a news photographer taking his picture outside court, where he was facing a two-day hearing over the single drug possession charge.

“F**k off ya c**t, I’ll stick that f**king camera up your f**king arse,” he told the photographer as he held his hand up to the lens.

An angry Pat Lennon yells at a cameraman outside court. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Inside court, his friend Ms Brandman, who he met as a client during her divorce, denied planting drugs on him as she gave her evidence behind a screen, which she was given permission to use so she couldn’t see Mr Lennon.

She said they were sitting in Mr Lennon’s Jaguar outside their friend’s place at the Como apartments on July 13 when police lights flashed behind them.

“They separated us straight away and took me to one side, and I did not see Pat,” she said of the police.

But she said she overheard Mr Lennon tell the officers: “I’m a lawyer, you don’t have to search me.”

Ms Brandman said the police replied that it was a “high drug area, we have to”.

Detective Senior Constable Khuong Tran told the court he was doing patrols when he noticed a “substance affected” Mr Lennon.

“What got my attention is he was unsteady on his feet … he didn’t have control of his head,” he said.

Watching him “wobble” to the driver’s side door, the detective said to his partner, “No way he’s going to drive like that”.

Det Tran said there was a rolled up $20 note on the drivers’ side of the Jaguar “in plain view”, and Mr Lennon’s shoulder bag was searched where methamphetamines were found in a “large ziplock bag”.

Mr Lennon was put in a divvy van and taken to Prahran police station, where he was charged with drug possession, trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime.

Mr Lennon is facing a drug possession charge. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

However, his trafficking and proceeds of crime charges were withdrawn by the prosecution on Thursday, with the case proceeding on the possession charge only.

Asked why she didn’t give a statement to police before August 2023, Ms Brandman said she got advice from a lawyer.

“The lawyer was Mr Pat Lennon,” she said.

High profile defence barrister Dermot Dann KC quizzed Ms Brandman about her past criminal charges, including for drugs.

She hit back, asking why that was relevant.

“It’s not my case, it’s his case,” she said.

She said she “never put any drugs in Mr Lennon’s bag, and he knows this”.

“The drugs were not mine, full stop. I never put any drugs in Mr Lennon’s bag and as a friend I would never do such a thing,” Ms Brandman said.

“He shouldn’t do this to me. It’s unfair and he knows it but he doesn’t care because he’s worried about …” she said, before cutting herself off.

Ms Brandman told the court that she found it “annoying” that people were lying “because I’m here to tell the truth”.

Mr Lennon denies the drug possession charge.

The hearing, before Magistrate Brett Sonnet, continues on Friday.