Bruce Lehrmann claims Brittany Higgins‘ fiance David Sharaz has been a ‘puppet master’ who carefully plotted using her rape claims to ‘take down’ the Coalition government.
Ms Higgins alleges she was sexually assaulted by Mr Lehrmann in a ministerial office in the early hours of March 23, 2019, while both were working as Liberal staffers, allegations he strongly denies.
Mr Lehrmann has seized on leaked texts between Mr Sharaz, who was working as a Labor staffer, and Ms Higgins to claim they show the ‘weaponisation’ of the rape allegations for political purposes.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest any of the parties in the criminal proceedings who received the material leaked it.
‘He (Mr Sharaz) just keeps injecting himself into it,’ Mr Lehrmann told The Australian.
‘He’s just more worried about how best to spin it or sell it or drop something in the media.’
Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann claims the rape allegations against him were ‘weaponised’ to ‘take down’ the Liberal party
Texts leaked on Thursday show Mr Sharaz basking in the fame that Ms Higgins’ airing of her rape allegations garnered after being revealed in a TV interview with Channel 10’s Lisa Wilkinson on February 15, 2021.
After the show aired Mr Sharaz texted Ms Higgins eagerly asking if she was ‘getting spotted’ and recognised.
A month after The Project interview, Ms Sharaz sent a joking text to Ms Higgins: ‘Don’t ditch me now you’re famous’ and followed that minutes later by texting ‘We exude power’.
In other texts he gloated about the pair being invited to socialise with former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull.
Mr Lehrmann claimed Mr Sharaz’s behaviour showed him to be a ‘class A typical political staffer’ as all he was doing was ‘selling a message’.
‘It wasn’t about me, it was about a bigger purpose, and clearly it was for the Labor Party,’ Mr Lehrmann said.
He accused Mr Sharaz ‘of riding the wave of Higgins’s fame’.
Mr Lehrmann said evidence given by senior AFP constable Emma Frizzell during the inquiry into the handling of his aborted rape trial in October also backs up his conclusions.
Constable Frizzell said that during a rest break in Ms Higgins’ first recorded police interview in March 2021, Mr Sharaz ‘entered the room and without concern for Ms Higgins’ welfare’.
The officer said Mr Sharaz ‘commenced showing and discussing media coverage to Ms Higgins’.
Mr Lehrmann has accused Ms Higgins’ (pictured left) fiance David Sharaz (pictured right) of being a ‘puppet master’
Freshly leaked texts sent by Mr Sharaz to Ms Higgins show him joking and boasting about the level of recognition she has
‘I believe the level of media involvement did affect the conduct of the investigation of Ms Higgins’ complaint,’ Constable Frizzell said on May 26.
‘I believe it was a tool driven by Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz, which is evident by the first engagement I had with them, whereby Ms Higgins advised she wished to see how the media played out prior to providing a statement.’
Another freshly leaked text shows that Mr Sharaz set Ms Higgins up with a job as she was preparing to make her rape claims.
In a message to Ms Higgins on January 1, 2021, he wrote: ‘Emma wants me to tell you that she’s about to advertise for a media adviser. It’s 80-90k and if you need a job for a short term to fill a void.’
‘Emma’ is his friend Emma Webster, who was working at the time for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria at the time.
She was previously a senior advisor to Finance Minister Katy Gallagher who is facing intense scrutiny over whether she misled parliament about being unaware of Mr Higgins’ rape allegations before they aired in the media.
Mr Sharaz said Ms Higgins would work with Emma to ‘progress the Treaty’ and said it brings his ‘two favourite women’ together in the same workplace.
The stream of leaked texts and audio recordings surrounding Hs Higgins’ rape accusations has become a political crisis for the Albanese government.
Another text reveals that Mr Sharaz set Ms Higgins up with a job as she was preparing to air her rape allegations
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher (pictured) is facing accusations that she misled parliament about being unaware of Ms Higgins’ accusations before they were aired by the media
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Senator Gallagher all face accusations they colluded with Mr Sharaz, Wilkinson and Ms Higgins to ‘weaponise’ the allegations so as to damage the Morrison Government.
The criminal trial last held in the ACT last October was abandoned after a jury member brought unauthorised material to the jury room.
A second trial was set to go ahead in February but the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold discontinued the matter citing the ‘significant and unacceptable’ risk to Ms Higgins’ mental health.
The handling of the case by the Australian Federal Police and Department of Public Prosecutions in now under review by an independent inquiry.
