Leaked texts reveal Higgins told journalist she planned to make AFP complaint

Brittany Higgins told the ABC journalist she planned to make a complaint about the AFP in the months before Bruce Lehrmann’s trial was to begin, leaked WhatsApp messages ­reveal.

ABC journalist Laura Tingle with Brittany Higgins at the National Press Club in 2022.

Brittany Higgins told an ABC journalist she planned to make a complaint about the federal police in the months before Bruce Lehrmann’s trial was to begin, leaked WhatsApp messages ­reveal.

In the messages sent to 7.30 journalist Laura Tingle, and ­obtained by The Australian, Ms Higgins accused the Australian Federal Police of releasing her sexual assault counselling records and other private documents to Mr Lehrmann’s defence team.

Ms Higgins had alleged Mr Lehrmann, a former Liberal ­staffer, raped her in a ministerial office at Parliament House in 2019. The trial was set to begin in June 2022, but was later delayed until October and then abandoned. Mr Lehrmann has always denied the charges.

Ms Higgins told Tingle, who now sits on the ABC board, she planned to make a formal complaint to the AFP in the coming weeks. “The AFP went against protocol serving the full brief of evidence to the defence ... In addition to this, the brief included all my mental health records, session notes from the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre and full videos of my EIC interviews,” she texted.

“This is obviously a massive breach of privacy, unlawful and quite stressful.

“The DPP has been trying to ascertain how and why this happened through the police. They’ve also sought assurances from the defence counsel that ­although the full brief was in their position for months it wasn’t looked at.”

In response, Tingle said: “Oh Britt, I’m so sorry. You need this like a hole in the head. How shit. How f..king outrageous (sic). Thanks for filling me in ... I will, of course, keep it firmly in the vault.

“Just sing our [sic], of course, if and when you want to provide the full lot. Lots of hugs and boxing gloves in the meantime.”

ABC journalist Laura Tingle. Picture: Rohan Thomson/Getty Images

Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold. Picture: ABC News

Weeks later, she sent a text to Tingle telling her she planned to lodge her complaint against the AFP later that day. She sent screenshots of five A4 pages of notes “compiled by the Director of Public Prosecutions Mr (Shane) Drumgold in relation to the police misconduct”.

She told Tingle to attribute the information to “emails seen by the ABC” rather than screenshots. There was more back and forth before an article was published on the ABC’s website on April 27, 2022.

An inquiry is currently under way looking into the way police handled the aborted trial of Mr Lehrmann.

Mr Drumgold told the inquiry, led by Walter Sofronoff KC, that he had read the counselling notes. Mr Drumgold conceded that under the statute he should not have done so.