Brittany Higgins led the red carpet arrivals at the premiere of new documentary Silenced at the Sydney Film Festival on Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n
Silenced initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and has been available in the United States, but not Australia until now. <\/p>\n
The film documents an international human rights lawyer\u2019s \u201cfight against the weaponisation of defamation laws to silence survivors\u201d and includes interviews with Hollywood star Amber Heard and Brittany Higgins.<\/p>\n
Higgins was all smiles as she arrived arm-in-arm with human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the doco was slapped with a warning by lawyers for former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.<\/p>\n
Reynolds, Higgins\u2019 former boss, successfully sued the former staffer for defamation last year over a series of social media posts made in 2022.<\/p>\n
Back in February, former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann\u2019s lawyers sent a concerns notice to the producers of the film.<\/p>\n
His lawyer Zali Burrows sent the notice to the documentary\u2019s producers amid Mr Lehrmann\u2019s separate last-ditch bid to overturn his damaging legal loss against Network 10 in the High Court.<\/p>\n
In the notice, seen by NewsWire, Burrows requested a copy of the film, a transcript, and a take-down of all promotional material.<\/p>\n
Burrows said the notice was to \u201cpreserve Lehrmann\u2019s right to a fair trial\u201d and alleged the film \u201cprejudices the jury pool\u201d in relation to separate criminal proceedings in Queensland.<\/p>\n
In April, the High Court of Australia officially rejected Lehrmann\u2019s bid to challenge the Federal Court\u2019s ruling, marking the definitive end to the defamation case.<\/p>\n
The former Liberal staffer launched the defamation suit against Ten and Lisa Wilkinson over Higgins\u2019 interview with The Project in February 2021, during which she alleged she was raped by a colleague inside the office of her then boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, after a night out drinking.<\/p>\n
In a landmark decision, Justice Michael Lee found that it was more likely than not that Lehrmann was \u201chellbent on having sex\u201d with her and \u201cdid not care one way or another whether Higgins understood or agreed to what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to NewsWire at the time, Higgins said the decision by the High Court \u201cbrings a measure of finality to a long and painful chapter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to acknowledge what has happened here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person who raped me used the legal system for years in a bid to silence my voice \u2013 the voice of his victim \u2013 and the journalists and media who reported my story.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, this isn\u2019t a rare occurrence. The only thing that made my case any different to that of many other Australians is that it took place under the full glare of the media spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n