Bruce Lehrmann's former barrister has slammed suggestions he asked the ACT's top prosecutor about "important text messages" on Brittany Higgins' phone, saying he had "no such conversation".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
John Korn rejected the account of Shane Drumgold SC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, on Thursday at an independent inquiry into how authorities handled Mr Lehrmann's case.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied allegations he raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House in 2019, when the pair worked for Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.
The case against him was abandoned late last year after juror misconduct forced a mistrial.
Mr Korn, who withdrew from the case ahead of the trial, was asked on Thursday about how police had inappropriately given him a brief of evidence that contained Ms Higgins' confidential counselling notes.
MORE INQUIRY COVERAGE:
There is no dispute about the fact he never opened them before returning the USB stick they were on.
Mr Korn also gave evidence of having spoken four times on the phone to Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, who oversaw the investigation of Mr Lehrmann, in August 2021.
He denied that the senior officer, who described Ms Higgins as "manipulative" in an executive briefing for his boss, had expressed to him any views about the veracity of the allegations or the strength of the case.
Mr Korn's calls with Detective Superintendent Moller had previously been raised with the inquiry in the written statement of Mr Drumgold.
Mr Drumgold has claimed Mr Korn informed him, during the early stages of the case, that: "Moller was telling me there were some important text messages in the brief, but the Cellebrite report is huge."
A Cellebrite report details material extracted during an analysis of a person's phone.
On Thursday, Mr Korn denied Detective Superintendent Moller had said this.
He also rejected claims he had then relayed the comments to Mr Drumgold and asked the prosecutor which messages were the "important" ones.
"Even if Mr Moller had said [that], I absolutely would not have had that conversation with an opponent, a DPP prosecutor," Mr Korn told the inquiry.
"I absolutely would not have had that conversation. It's not in my nature."
