Federal police have been asked to investigate the alleged leaking of evidence from the trial of Bruce Lehrmann to the media.
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.
“Network Ten made a complaint to the AFP last Wednesday, requesting they investigate a suspected contempt of court in relation to material produced under an AFP warrant and a subpoena issued in the ACT supreme court which appears to have been disclosed to the media in breach of the implied undertaking in Hearne v Street,” Saunders confirmed in a statement.
“The AFP yesterday confirmed the complaint had been received for consideration.”
The complaint was first reported by Nine newspapers.
In a statement, the AFP said it “is aware of current media reporting regarding released information in the Lehrmann matter. ACT Policing has received a complaint from lawyers acting for a television network.
“The complaint is now before the AFP’s Sensitive Investigation Oversight Board.”
The reference in Saunders’ statement to the Hearne v Street undertaking relates to obligations that parties who receive material under the compulsory processes of the court during a court case not disclose or use that information for any other purpose.
Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson in the federal court over their initial reporting of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, which he denies. The rape trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and a second trial was abandoned due to concerns about the risk it posed to Higgins’ life.
Lehrmann has also started proceedings against the ABC for broadcasting a live address by Higgins to the national press club.
The federal court heard on Friday from lawyers acting for Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson arguing that a “calculated” and “concerted” media campaign using restricted court material is being waged to pressure and dissuade witnesses from giving evidence in the defamation trial brought by Lehrmann.
Lehrmann’s counsel Matthew Richardson SC rejected the “grave” allegation. They said Lehrmann denied involvement and the allegations from the media were “aggravating damages” in the defamation case.
In parliament on Tuesday, the independent MP Zali Steggall asked attorney general Mark Dreyfus about the status of a review into the privacy act, which will consider strengthening the privacy standards media organisations are bound by prior to publication.
Dreyfus said he was “deeply concerned about the apparent unauthorised publication of [the] material”.
In the senate, finance minister Katy Gallagher described the publication of the stories as “the most egregious abuse of privacy I’ve ever seen”.
Gallagher had earlier denied that she had misled parliament regarding the saga, responding to allegations that had surfaced in a story based on “leaked” text messages.
Network Ten’s complaint to the AFP came after lawyers for the media outlets and for Higgins spent much of last week attempting to locate the source of the leak.
Higgins’ lawyer, Leon Zwier, wrote to Anthony Williamson SC, the acting director of the ACT DPP, about the leaks on 7 June, according to documents released by the federal court.
Zwier detailed six publications in the Australian, Daily Mail and on the Seven Network since December last year which he said included material which had not been tendered in evidence during Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
“Our client is suffering from the ongoing publication of her private documents,” Zwier wrote.
“She believes it is part of a deliberate attempt to undermine her credibility.
“She believes that every media outlet that received the Private Documents knew or ought to have known that it was a contempt of the ACT Supreme Court to further publish them.”
Zwier said the ongoing publication put “at risk is confidence in the capacity of the ACT criminal justice system to secure documents containing sensitive personal information about victims of sexual assault”.
“Our client requests that you immediately bring these matters to the attention of the Chief Justice of the ACT supreme court and seek orders and directions to conduct an inquiry to ascertain who has committed these acts and then have that person or those persons dealt with by the Court.”
Guardian Australia contacted the Australian, Seven and Daily Mail Australia for comment about the material used in their publications last week. The Australian did not respond, Seven declined to comment and the Daily Mail said it did not comment on its sources.
The ACT chief justice Lucy McCallum has been contacted for comment.
