Bruce Lehrmann’s barrister for his rape trial Steve Whybrow confessed in a witness statement, as per below, to aiding and abetting Murdoch propagandist Janet Albrechtsen, who writes for The Australian, with a leaked police document known as the “Moller Report” and other documents in a deliberate attempt to harass Brittany Higgins.

When put together with other facts it becomes obvious Steve Whybrow, with Bruce Lehrmann’s approval, is the person who has illegally leaked other documents, recordings and possibly text messages from the rape trial to News Corp and Seven West Media which could and should see Mr Whybrow and Mr Lehrmann charged with contempt of court.

Channel 10 have made a formal complaint to the federal police regarding the latest leaked material and ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum could potentially institute contempt proceedings.

The Guardian reports: “Marlia Saunders, a partner at Thomson Geer, who is representing Network Ten in a defamation case brought by Lehrmann against them, confirmed she had made a complaint to the AFP on 7 June regarding the leak.” (Click here to read more)

Barristers for Channel 10 and Lisa Wilkinson, who are being sued for defamation by Bruce Lehrmann, told the court that they believe the leaks are designed to intimidate Brittany Higgins, and possibly other witnesses, not to give evidence in the defamation case. This could lead to other criminal charges against Steve Whybrow and Bruce Lehrmann.

What supports the “witness intimidation” claim by Channel 10’s and Wilkinson’s barristers, although I doubt they raised it in court, is the fact Bruce Lehrmann is being represented by Mark O’Brien Legal who have recently been exposed trying to intimidate witnesses to conceal war crimes for another of their clients, Ben Roberts-Smith. This also helps explain the leak to Channel 7 as Ben Roberts-Smith worked at Seven and Kerry Stokes funded his defamation case so Mark O’Brien Legal where already on Seven’s payroll.

The SMH reported on the 4th of June 2023:

Disgraced war hero Ben Roberts-Smith waged an aggressive campaign to cover up his war crimes, invoking a special forces’ code of silence as well as smearing and threatening those he thought had revealed his misconduct. (Click here to read more) 

And on the 5th of June 2023:

Disgraced former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith and his allies repeatedly lied, colluded, tampered with evidence and intimidated witnesses during his unsuccessful defamation fight. (Click here to read more)

It must be noted that Mark O’Brien Legal would not have had access to the Legal documents and recordings. They would have had to come from Steve Whybrow. It must also be noted that Steve Whybrow, who represented Lehrmann in the rape trial, has been retained by Lehrmann for one of the defamation claims and would have been briefed by Mark O’Brien Legal.

So, Steve Whybrow has a financial interest, in at least one of the defamation cases, as motivation to illegally leak the court documents / recordings to intimidate Brittany Higgins not to give evidence for the defence.

Steve Whybrow has the Moller Report, other police documents and has admitted that he has a copy of the to the latest leaked secret recording but has denied leaking it. (Click here to read more) But Whybrow’s conduct below regarding the leaked Moller Report destroys his credibility regarding leaked material.

In the below video, at the ACT Police Corruption Inquiry, Steve Whybrow seems worried when asked about his conversation with Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman alerting him to the fact that he had spoken to Janet Albrechtsen regarding the Moller Report and other police documents and that Albrechtsen might contact Boorman. Watch Whybrow’s head turn at the 39 to 40 second mark when Albrechtsen’s name is mentioned. It was the reaction of a worried man.

Barrister Steve Whybrow confesses aiding and abetting News Corp propagandist Janet Albrechtsen

The Moller Report was an Executive Briefing written by Detective Superintendent Scott Moller for his boss ACT Deputy Chief Police Officer Michael Chew to determine how the matter would proceed and to potentially decide not to charge Lehrmann. Scott Moller did a hatchet job on Brittany Higgins attacking her credibility, while saying nothing about Bruce Lehrmann’s numerous lies, in an attempt to persuade Deputy Chief Police Officer Michael Chew not to charge Bruce Lehrmann.

Ironically, Scott Moller was exposed for perjury by his conflicting evidence at the ACT Inquiry against what Steve Whybrow told the inquiry about a phone conversation they had regarding the Moller Report. (Click here to read more and watch the video)

News Corp propagandist Janet Albrechtsen published an article based on the Moller Report and other police documents (3/12/22) less than 24 hours after the DPP announced it would discontinue the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann and while Brittany Higgins was is hospital because of the stress of the matter.

But Albrechtsen had been sitting on the story since at least the 19th of October 2022 as per below which is from page 37 of Steve Whybrow’s statement for the ACT Inquiry. Read paragraphs 34.7 to 34.9 first then I will analyse Steve Whybrow’s lies.

Mr Whybrow admits talking to Janet Albrechtsen about the “Moller Report” and other police documents and he admits to calling Detective Inspector Boorman not long after to ask about police verifying the documents as police documents for Janet Albrechtsen. Since when does a barrister in a rape trial aid and abet a journalist regarding leaked police documents. He should face charges for that alone.

The smoking gun?

If Steve Whybrow was not the leaker he would have assumed that the police were the leakers, because who else would leak the documents, and he wouldn’t have bothered contacting Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman asking him to verify to Janet Albrechtsen that they were police documents. I notice in Steve Whybrow’s statement above he didn’t ask the police if they had leaked the documents to Janet Albrechtsen which had to be because he already knew the police weren’t the leakers because he was.

But if Steve Whybrow was the leaker of the documents to Janet Albrechtsen then it makes sense he would contact Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman asking him to verify to Janet Albrechtsen that they were police documents.

What makes it worse is that Steve Whybrow admitted on the witness stand at the ACT Inquiry he had never seen such a biased one-sided document like the Moller Report before as per the below video. 

Steve Whybrow knew if Janet Albrechtsen was relying on the Moller Report for her story, she was going to do a hit job on Brittany Higgins, because the Moller Reports sole purpose is to attack Higgins, which is what Albrechtsen did.

Albrechtsen has continued to attack Brittany Higgins and defend Bruce Lehrmann since then with Steve Whybrow’s continued support. Questioning on the Moller Report starts at the 4.17 mark in the below video.

(Click here to watch the video on YouTube)

Text messages between Steve Whybrow and Prosecutor Sky Jerome on the day Janet Albrechtsen ran the story (3/12/22) were tendered to the ACT inquiry by Steve Whybrow and show him concealing he had helped Janet Albrechtsen with the story.

The Guardian reported (16/5/23):

According to documents tendered at the inquiry, Sky Jerome, a junior counsel for the prosecution, voiced concerns to Lehrmann’s lawyer Steven Whybrow after an article about the case was published in the Australian newspaper.

The article was about a report that raised concerns about the “strength and reliability” of Higgins’s evidence, as well as her mental health and “how any future prosecution may affect her wellbeing”. It referred to what became known as the Moller report, which was secret at the time.

Jerome sent a screenshot of the article to Whybrow and asked him who leaked the documents. It’s “outrageous”, she said in a text.

Whybrow said he had “no idea” where the leak came from, but it was “100%” not his team, and said to Jerome “[I] hope you make the same accusation to the cops”. (Click here to read more)

On the 20th of May 2023 Steve Whybrow was interviewed by Janet Albrechtsen for an article and attacked Brittany Higgins as per the below video. Nowhere in the below video does Steve Whybrow say he leaked the Moller Report to Janet Albrechtsen to defame Brittany Higgins or at least say he helped Janet Albrechtsen get the Moller Report verified as a police document even though he knew it was a very biased report attacking Brittany Higgins.

Steve Whybrow also did another interview with Janet Albrechtsen on the 19th of May for an article and a video.

Janet Albrechtsen has also published interviews with Senator Linda Reynolds to attack Brittany Higgins and on Tuesday night (13/6/23) Senator Reynolds leaked a legal letter, addressed to Labor MP Tanya Plibersek, to Janet Albrechtsen which she published on The Australian’s website, that is a concerns notice threatening defamation against Tanya Plibersek. 

In the below video Janet Albrechtsen accuses Brittany Higgins of manipulating the situation but Albrechtsen puts words in Liberal staffer Fiona Brown’s mouth to manipulate an attack on Brittany Higgins. Fiona Brown was Chief of Staff for Senator Linda Reynolds when the alleged rape happened in March 2019.

As well as being a fulltime propagandist for the Murdochs Janet Albrechtsen is also Chairman of The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) which is a propaganda outfit for wealthy criminals like the Murdochs.

This matter has gone way past an alleged rape being covered up by political and police corruption to protect the Liberal Party. It is now also a matter about witness intimidation and the rule of law.

If Rupert Murdoch can openly use his media to help Bruce Lehrmann and Steve Whybrow to intimidate witnesses in court cases, as recently tried by Ben Roberts-Smith and Kerry Stokes, then that is evidence that the country, it’s legal system and law enforcement agencies have been overtaken by the rich.

Steve Whybrow should be subpoenaed to give further evidence at the ACT Police Corruption Inquiry and be charged with Contempt of Court in the ACT Supreme Court along with Bruce Lehrmann and possibly others.

In the next few days I will follow up with the relevant people and try and drive this issue further.

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