Bruce Lehrmann and Senator Linda Reynolds speak out on Channel 7’s Spotlight

Senator Linda Reynolds claims she was set up as the “perfect villain” in the allegations against Bruce Lehrmann.

Bruce Lehrmann is considering further legal action worth millions of dollars in compensation after a bombshell inquiry found there had been misconduct in his rape trial.

Mr Lehrmann, his defence barrister, Stephen Whybrow, and his former employer, senator Linda Reynolds, spoke to Channel 7’s Spotlight in response to the damning findings of an inquiry into the prosecution of his rape trial.

Mr Lehrmann, a former Liberal staffer who worked for Ms Reynolds, was charged with raping his colleague, Brittany Higgins, in Ms Reynolds’ office at Parliament House in March 2019.

Bruce Lehrmann has always said vehemently denied the allegations he raped Brittany Higgins. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault and his trial was aborted last year after juror misconduct. The charge was subsequently dropped.

Mr Lehrmann has always vigorously denied the allegations, and no findings have ever been made against him.

The inquiry into the high-profile rape trial, chaired by Walter Sofronoff KC, found that lead prosecutor Shane Drumgold had “knowingly lied” to the Supreme Court Chief Justice and had “lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment as was required by his role”.

Mr Drumgold resigned as the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions last week after the inquiry into the handling of Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial made several adverse findings against him, which he has refuted.

“While I acknowledge I made mistakes, I strongly dispute that I engaged in deliberate or underhanded conduct in the trial or that I was dishonest,” he said in a statement last Sunday.

Former ACT DPP Shane Drumgold stood down following the damning report into his prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Dylan Robinson

Lehrmann strikes back at Drumgold

Speaking to Spotlight on Sunday, Mr Lehrmann said he’s considering further legal action after the fallout of the trial.

“It will have to be a multimillion-dollar claim because I have to consider I may never work again,” Mr Lehrmann said.

“After being smeared and slammed for the last two or three years now.

“I am innocent. If we were able to have a fair trial and a trial at all, I’m entirely confident it would have … rendered a not-guilty verdict for me.”

When asked for a figure by journalist Liam Bartlett, he declined to answer, but when pressed on if it could total up to six million dollars, he responded: “Yeah.”

Mr Lehrmann is currently in suing Channel 10, Lisa Wilkinson and the ABC in a joint defamation claim, which he said he’s “not backing down” on.

The trial against Bruce Lehrmann was aborted after juror misconduct. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

He said he is also now studying to become a lawyer.

Mr Lehrmann said told Spotlight he was also disappointed in Drumgold’s handling of the trial.

He said he even felt sorry for how Ms Wilkinson and others had been dragged into the inquiry.

“To varying degrees, we’ve all been touched by the brush of Drumgold,” he said.

“He is central to the effects you’ve just listed, allegations of unethical treatment of Ms (Fiona) Brown … how (Ms Wilkinson) was treated by the director was also pretty bad …”

Senator says she’s been blamed as ‘the villain’

Senator Linda Reynolds also spoke to Spotlight on Sunday night, stating she became an unnecessary “villain” in the allegations against Mr Lehrmann for political purposes.

Ms Reynolds said she was “devastated” at further allegations she had allegedly tried to cover up the incident.

“I was the perfect villain,” Reynolds said.

“Although none of it, this is the irony of it, none of it was absolutely true.

“Every good political hit job and every good story like this, and every social crusade, needs a villain.

“And I’ve now learned a lot more about how that was set up through … those recordings with Ms Higgins and (Network 10 journalist) Lisa Wilkinson.”

Ms Reynolds said “it’s time” she gave her side of the story.

“It more than hurt, it completely devastated me, the allegations that were aired about me, you cannot think of anything worse or a worse allegation of any woman that you covered up the rape of a young woman in your own office,” Ms Reynolds said.

“It hurt.”

Senator Linda Reynolds said she was “devastated” at claims she’d covered up an alleged rape in her office. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Bruce Lehrmann will share his reaction to the Sofronoff report. Picture: 7 NEWS

‘Recollections may vary’: Reynolds

Ms Reynolds confirmed she is separately suing Ms Higgins for defamation, but when asked if she stood by previous comments she’d made, she refused to comment due to a previous settlement.

“That wasn’t about what did or didn’t happen on that night because there was only two people who knew what happened that night, and that was in dispute,” Ms Reynolds said about the Parliament House incident.

“Our recollections to this day vary.”

The senator said she was speaking out to take control of her part of the story.

“For nearly two-and-a-half years, Brittany has had control of the narrative.

“I’ve had enough.”

Ms Reynolds said she disputed the narrative in which it was claimed Ms Higgins feared she was at risk of losing her job over the rape allegation.

CCTV footage of Brittany Higgins arriving at Parliament House on the night of the alleged rape was shown during the June episode of 7 NEWS Spotlight. Picture: 7 News Spotlight

She explained Mr Lehrmann had lost his job at parliament following that night because it was the second time he’d breached security by visiting the building after hours.

“After Fiona (Brown – Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff) talked to him on the night we let him go,” Ms Reynolds said.

“Brittany saw that and she went in afterwards and she was quite rightfully concerned about her job.

“We made it clear she had done the wrong thing but if she wanted to keep her job she could.

“I absolutely gave her a second chance. She was bright keen, politically aware, exactly the person we wanted here.”

Mr Lehrmann, who has always denied all accusations of raping or being intimate with former political staffer Brittany Higgins in March 2019, had previously spoken to Channel 7 in June, his first televised interview.

The June Spotlight episode showed CCTV footage of Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins at a Canberra bar, The Dock, with colleagues on March 22, before they are seen entering Ms Reynolds’ office at 1.47am.

Mr Lehrmann was recorded leaving Parliament House at 2.30am.

Barrister Steven Whybrow says his client Bruce Lehrmann didn’t receive a fair trial. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Lehrmann barrister says trial ‘not fair’

Mr Whybrow, who represented Bruce Lehrmann in his rape trial, has said he believes his client did not get a fair trial.

Mr Whybrow told Spotlight he found the Sofronoff report damning and said it proved there was “a loss of objectivity” in the case against his client.

“According to the Sofronoff Report, and my experience, Bruce did not get a fair trial,” Mr Whybrow said.

“Things happened, there was an almost, I don’t know how to explain it but we were up against it from the start and this case … it was hard.”

The mystery of the missing jacket

In the CCTV footage of Ms Higgins leaving parliament the following day after the alleged rape, she can be seen wearing a Carla Zampatti jacket, which belonged to Ms Reynolds.

Ms Higgins had previously claimed she pulled it from a charity donations box in Ms Reynolds’ office, while the Senator has claimed it was from her personal wardrobe.

The senator told Spotlight on Sunday she never got her jacket back, and only found out about Ms Higgins taking it during the pre-criminal trial proceedings

“I just thought I’d lost it, it wasn’t until Brittany wears it home the next morning,” she said.

“It was claimed in the court case she’d gotten it from (a charity bin). And it made me laugh, that was my wardrobe.

“I never got it back.”