Brittany Higgin’s alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann was served by the ACT police on Friday (6/8/21) with a summons, via his lawyers, to attend court on the 16th of September 2021 where he will be charged with rape. Until just after midday Saturday (7/8/21) the old media were still running a protection racket for the Liberal Party, which they had been running for months, and were refusing to name Lehrmann even though there was no legal reason to not name him.
All the old media were in on the protection racket with some grubby journalists going next level by telling lies and using social media to try to intimidate social media users by telling them they could be charged with contempt of court if they named Lehrmann. What is extremely disturbing about that is it promotes the silence culture which has protected all types of sexual predators for decades but more on that in a minute.
I have named Bruce Lehrmann in numerous articles over the last six months and named him in social media posts on Friday for being summoned by the police to face rape charges and the website True Crimes News Weekly published in article on Friday naming Lehrmann. But some trolls on social media started attacking us for naming Lehrmann and some journalists jumped on board as well saying not to name him as it might put the trial at risk which is just lies.
And you only have to look to Thursday (5/8/21) to realise that. Hillsong’s Brian Houston was summoned, via his lawyers, on Thursday to appear in court in October as well and all the media reported that and no one attacked me on social media for reporting it. So, what is the difference with Bruce Lehrmann? The answer is Lehrmann has the potential to do a thousand times more damage to the government as government MP’s and staffers are certain to be called as witnesses to the trial which could include Brittany Higgin’s former bosses one of which is current Attorney-General Michaelia Cash.
Any court case will be the ultimate humiliation for the Scott Morrison government as many lies by the government regarding their handling of the scandal will be exposed.
All states including the ACT have laws that you cannot name victims or alleged victims of sex crimes and that is to protect the alleged victims not to protect the alleged offender but some in the media were claiming differently on Friday and have been for months since this matter was first exposed.
Channel 9 gave in and named Lehrmann in a short article just after midday on Saturday (7/8/21), just after 2pm News.com.au named Lehrmann in an article and just after 5pm the SMH website named him. Other media if not all will be certain to now follow and name Lehrmann.
It is worth having a look at what has happened with the media not naming Lehrmann for months and especially the 24 hours after the police media release on Friday were lies, threats and intimidation were used to try and silence myself, True Crimes News Weekly and social media users to not name Lehrmann.
Other media not naming Lehrmann has never been about the law it has always been about protecting the Liberal Party because it does not matter whether Lehrmann is guilty or innocent the Liberal Party still have a lot of questions to answer about their attempted cover-up over the last 2 years. Only Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann know if he is guilty or not, but a jury will look at all the evidence and make a decision. But the Liberal Party did not care about his guilt or innocence, they went straight into cover-up mode when the alleged rape happened over 2 years ago.
And one thing is for certain and that is Scott Morrison’s media people and advisors have been leaning on the old media over the last six months not to name Lehrmann because they did not want to give the issue oxygen which is what will happen now more media are starting to name him. Potentially other witnesses or victims will now come forward but what is worse for the Liberal Party and what they are really worried about is potentially other witnesses to the Liberal Party’s cover-up will come forward.
The fact that many reporters were and some still are aiding and abetting the Liberal Party in keeping his name out of the media shows how much the Liberal Party are able to influence the media to help conceal their dirty laundry.
Why it is important to name alleged criminals including alleged rapists – Open justice
“Open justice is one of the fundamental attributes of a fair trial. That the administration of justice must take place in open court is a ‘fundamental rule of the common law’. The High Court has said that ‘the rationale of the open court principle is that court proceedings should be subjected to public and professional scrutiny, and courts will not act contrary to the principle save in exceptional circumstances’.” (Click here to read more)
Culture of silence
Old media not naming alleged criminals is the same pattern that lead to the widespread rape of children in institutions as exposed by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. If you watched the Royal Commission, you would have heard the same story over and over again from different victims about how they were silenced to not name the priest or carer who abused them. Their parents told them not to name the priest, the police told them not to name the priest and other priests told them not to name the priest, so the priest kept on abusing more children.
Making sure the priests or carers were not named was a deliberate coordinated strategy to make sure the priests were never exposed, and it allowed them to keep on raping children. The same thing happens with rape and sexual assault where there is pressure on victims not to name predators.
I thought the cycle of not naming alleged rapists and paedophiles was over with the Royal Commission, but it has reared its ugly head again with Bruce Lehrmann and the media are the worst culprits. Why? The Liberal Party connection is the obvious answer.
By the media not naming Lehrmann, whether he is guilty or not is irrelevant, means we were heading back to the days when certain people are protected from being exposed if it suits those in power. Everyone else gets named as that is how the justice system works. It’s called “open justice” and it is meant to make sure the legal system works how it is meant to and make sure the legal system is not abused by the rich and powerful.
Not only were the old media refusing to name Bruce Lehrmann, and some still are at this point, when there is no legal basis not to, but some journalists have been going onto social media, making up lies, and telling others they should not name Lehrmann as well which is very grubby stuff. If the media had legitimate reasons not to name Lehrmann they wouldn’t need to make up lies and use scare tactics claiming people could be charged with contempt of court.
The below message on Twitter was posted on Friday (6/8/21) and is by ABC Four Corners journalist Lucy Carter and was supported by Louise Milligan who is also an ABC Four Corners journalist.
Lucy Carter was lying by telling people they could be charged with contempt of court if they named Bruce Lehrmann and Louise Milligan helped promote the lie. That helps promote the silence culture and they should both know better especially Ms Milligan who has written extensively on paedophiles, sexual assault and how victims don’t get justice. The good work Ms Milligan does not justify her telling lies and promoting lies whether it is deliberate or not.
Lucy Carter replied, and I sent follow-up questions as per below:
Yes, Lucy Carter says “I prefer caution” so she lies and tells people they could be charged with contempt of court if they name Bruce Lehrmann and they risk the outcome of the court case. Many people would believe the lies told by Lucy Carter and Louise Milligan because they are Four Corners reporters. Both should apologise to the public and not speak out of school when they clearly have no clue.
Channel 10’s Lisa Wilkinson who broke the Brittany Higgins story tweeted on Friday:
“On the issue of the 26 yo man summonsed for an alleged sexual assault of a woman in Parliament House in March 2019 can I implore everyone to respect what’s in play here. Naming the man on social media & passing judgement could have dire consequences for the outcome of any trial.” (Click here to see on Twitter)
Lisa Wilkinson tells the public not to name Bruce Lehrmann, but Wilkinson is the one who has been naming Brittany Higgins every chance she gets and telling the public all the details of the alleged rape.
Is she for real? Where do these people get off telling social media users what they can and can’t say based on lies they are telling about the law? I wonder what Lisa Wilkinson, Lucy Carter and Louise Milligan will say now that Nine, News and the SMH have named Lehrmann?
Everyone watches TV or uses the internet and we can see the media naming alleged criminals every day but as soon as the old media don’t want someone named, they jump on their social media accounts and start lying and trying to intimidate people into not naming alleged criminals. A couple of other journalists did the same thing and told Twitter users not to share my article when I named Christian Porter on the 2nd of March as the minister who allegedly raped Katharine Thornton. That article went viral and forced Porter to have a press conference the next day to out himself as the minister.
One of the journalists who told Twitter users not to share the Porter article was Lisa Wilkinson’s husband Peter FitzSimons. The “we are smarter than everyone else so we can tell people what to do” mentality seems to be a family trait. Most old media companies and quite a few old media journalists do not like new media journalists changing the status quo and for whatever reason Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons seem to be two of them.
Others in the media were saying they were not naming Lehrmann because of legal reasons but that is the same media who openly named Hillsong’s Brian Houston the day before in exactly the same circumstances. It is the same media who are happy to name Brittany Higgins even though she is the one the law is meant to protect. If the media are not going to name someone it is Brittany Higgins they shouldn’t name not Bruce Lehrmann. But as we know Brittany Higgins has outed herself so there is no reason not to name her and no reason not to name Bruce Lehrmann.
Why did the old media take 24 hours after the police media release to start naming Lehrmann? The old media were left with little choice except to name Bruce Lehrmann as they were losing a lot of internet traffic to this website, True Crimes News Weekly and a few smaller websites. Also, I Tweeted the below on Saturday morning which meant the old media were about to be ridiculed online for not naming Lehrmann and lose a lot of internet traffic at least until Lehrmann’s court date next month.
The media, which is all the old media, who fell into line and did not name Bruce Lehrmann when there is no legal basis not to were helping Australia head back to the silence culture days that allowed thousands of children to be raped which the Royal Commission exposed. And the same can be said for rape and sexual assault. All the old media should be ashamed and that is why it was important to do this article to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.
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