Sofronoff inquiry hears Heidi Yates knew of Higgins’s claim before it went public
Within three days of meeting Brittany Higgins, Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates was accompanying her to meetings with Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison.
Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates knew about Brittany Higgins’s sexual assault allegation a month before the former Liberal staffer publicly claimed that Bruce Lehrmann raped her inside Parliament House.
And within three days of meeting Ms Higgins, Ms Yates was accompanying her to meetings with Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison.
The Board of Inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system on Thursday heard that Ms Yates first became aware of Ms Higgins while attending a community event, as a guest speaker, on January 13, 2021.
Ms Yates said a presenter at the event approached her during a break and told her that he was “working with a young woman who was about to make a sexual-assault disclosure” and that it “would likely attract national media attention”. He then asked Ms Yates if she would provide a message of support.
Ms Yates said the man – whose identity was not revealed – told her he was “gathering such messages” and she provided an email of “general support”.
On February 15, 2021, Ms Higgins’s rape allegation was broadcast on Network 10’s The Project and published on news.com.au.
On April 26, 2021, Ms Yates received an email from Ms Higgins’s partner David Sharaz, who she “vaguely” knew as a local news journalist. He said Ms Higgins needed help in relation to a meeting she was having with then-prime minister Scott Morrison a few days later.
The next day, Ms Yates met Ms Higgins, who sought information about systemic issues affecting victims of sexual assault that she planned to raise with the PM.
On April 30, Ms Yates accompanied Ms Higgins – at her request – to separate meetings with Tanya Plibersek, Mr Albanese, Mr Morrison and senior public servant Stephanie Foster, who led a review into practices in parliamentary workplaces related to serious incidents.
On May 5, Ms Higgins called Ms Yates and asked if she could contact the ACT Police on her behalf to get “some more information about the investigation”.
From that point, Ms Yates provided Ms Higgins with support and financial assistance throughout the police investigation and Mr Lehrmann’s trial.
Board chairman Walter Sofronoff KC is considering whether the Victims of Crime Commissioner acted in accordance with her relevant statutory framework in terms of the support she provided to Ms Higgins.
During examination, Ms Yates defended her decision to be “the public face of support” for Ms Higgins by walking into the ACT Supreme Court, past a media pack, with her each day, despite its propensity to affect the accused’s presumption of innocence.
Mr Sofronoff said by doing so, Ms Yates had decided to “really be the public face of that support”.
Ms Yates said she had discussed the decision with Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold at Ms Higgins’s final proofing meeting before the trial and that he had raised no concerns. “I say that my presence alongside her had not been objected to by defence counsel or anyone else,” she said.
Counsel assisting Erin Longbottom KC also interrogated Ms Yates’s decision to stand next to Ms Higgins during her speech outside court on October 27 last year, less than an hour after Mr Lehrmann’s trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.
Ms Yates said she did not consider whether the speech would infer that Ms Higgins’s allegations were true or that Mr Lehrmann was guilty. “Frankly, at that point, that was not in my mind, and I recognise with hindsight, that it could have been,” she said. “But at that point in time … I was ready to make arrangements to return Ms Higgins to her accommodation after a very stressful period of time.
“Someone said she wants to make a statement on her way out of court and …I wasn’t focused on what she may or may not say.”
However, Ms Yates admitted she asked court sheriffs where Ms Higgins should stand to deliver the speech.
Ms Longbottom asked Ms Yates if she spoke to Ms Higgins about the “wisdom of her giving a speech at that time”, given there would be a retrial.
Ms Yates responded: “I didn’t.
“I was aware from being copied in to several emails that she and her lawyer had been working on the matter of that statement which we’ve had for some time, and even that Mr (Leon) Zwier, as I understood it, had some engagement with Mr Drumgold about the fact that Ms Higgins was intending to do a statement.”
Ms Yates said Ms Higgins has agency to make her own decisions and it was not her role to direct her not to make certain choices.
“Our clients retain the agency to make decisions in their own lives as they navigate difficult circumstances,” she said.
But Ms Yates also conceded that, had she reflected, she might not have stood beside Ms Higgins during her speech.
“I‘m very open to the likelihood that if I had more information to consider, I may have made a different decision,” Ms Yates said.
The inquiry’s public hearings have been adjourned.
Mr Sofronoff’s findings are due on July 31.
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