Brittany Higgins, Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live blog: Secret recording of Higgins’ lawyer Leon Zwier chatting to fiancé David Sharaz in a hotel bar rocks Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial: Bombshell hits court case
Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation hearing resumed in the Federal Court on Tuesday with references to two news stories published overnight.
The articles were published by Sky News and news.com.au and claimed to have recordings of Ms Higgins’ lawyer Leon Zwier having a discussion with her fiance David Sharaz last Monday in the Park Hyatt lobby bar.
At that time, Ms Higgins was in the middle of cross-examination and therefore barred from speaking to her legal counsel.
Breaching that rule could amount to contempt of court.
According to the Sky News article, tendered in court on Tuesday, Mr Zwier could be heard giving Mr Sharaz advice on how Ms Higgins should respond to questions about her compensation payment on the witness stand the following morning.
He said: ‘She should say, privilege, your honour, I’m told by my lawyer I don’t have to discuss legal advice, that’s what she should say.’
The conversation is believed to have been recorded from a nearby table in the Park Hyatt hotel lobby in Sydney on Monday, December 4th.
He was also accused of writing Ms Higgins’ draft medical report, which was submitted after Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court collapsed in October last year.
The report said Ms Higgins’ mental health was too fragile to give evidence in another trial, and resulted in the charge against Mr Lehrmann being dropped.
Mr Zwier did not respond to questions about whether the medical report he drafted was also submitted to the Commonwealth, when contacted by Sky News.
The conversation was recorded without the knowledge of Mr Zwier or Mr Sharaz, which could make the recording inadmissible in court.
However, the recording could be allowed in evidence if it was recorded in a public place and it was reasonable that others could overhear.
Justice Michael Lee said one of the issues was whether it was a private conversation or not.
A subpoena has been issued to Sky News for the audio recordings.
Responding to the claims, Mr Zwier told Sky there was a common understanding that no one would speak to Ms Higgins about her testimony.
‘All my private conversations with David Sharaz and Emma Webster were on the common understanding that Brittany was under cross examination and no one was to talk with her about the substance of her evidence or the manner in which she was giving it,’ Mr Zwier said. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting otherwise.
He did not respond to additional questions about whether the medical report he drafted was also submitted to the Commonwealth, when contacted by Sky News.
