Lisa Wilkinson’s daughter of The Daily Aus editor is compelled to confront her mom’s position within the chaotic Bruce Lehrmann case after extraordinary findings within the Sofronoff investigation

A information web site edited by Lisa Wilkinson’s daughter has defended itself with a disclaimer on articles about Bruce Lehrmann stating that she “has no input” of their publication.

Billi FitzSimons, 25, the daughter of Wilkinson and fellow journalist Peter FitzSimons, has been editor of the social media first outlet The Daily Aus since March 2022.

The publication focuses on the position of FitzSimons’ mom in Mr Lehrmann’s disorderly prosecution for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins following damning findings within the Sofronoff Inquiry.

The Daily Aus co-founders Zara Seidler and Sam Koslowski stated that “declaring personal connections to a story is an important pillar of our journalistic integrity.”

“We are incredibly proud of Billi’s significant contribution as an editor,” Seidler and Koslowski instructed Daily Mail Australia.

Walter Sofronoff investigated the conduct of police and prosecutors in Mr Lehrmann’s ACT Supreme Court trial, which was dropped resulting from juror misconduct.

Mr Sofronoff felt Wilkinson’s ’45 years of expertise’ in journalism ought to have led her to know what would jeopardize a jury trial – a reference to the trial being postponed after her speech when she received a Logie for reporting concerning the case.

The former Queensland Supreme Court decide additionally famous that Wilkinson, who was working for Network 10 on the time, clearly had no scarcity of authorized recommendation.

There have been calls to cost Wilkinson with contempt of courtroom after she talked about Higgins in her speech for profitable the Outstanding News Coverage Logie award for her 2021 interview with the previous ministerial staffer.

Ms Higgins alleged that Mr Lehrmann raped her at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019 after they have been colleagues – which he has all the time vehemently denied.

ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum expressed concern over Wilkinson’s feedback on the Logies that would penalize jurors.

Network 10 then introduced that it had employed high-profile lawyer Matthew Collins on behalf of the channel and Wilkinson simply hours after Dr. Collins had criticized Wilkinson’s speech on rival Chanel Seven’s morning present Sunrise.

“It is certainly possible that the authorities will look at the speech she gave to the Logies and judge (whether) that speech went against the standard applicable in this branch of the law,” Dr Collins stated.

“That benchmark is, does anything she did tend to distort the administration of justice?”

Ms McCallum determined to postpone the trial ‘unfortunately and with gritted teeth’ as a result of ‘somewhere in this debate the distinction between an untested accusation and the fact of guilt has been lost’.

She stated public curiosity within the case needed to die earlier than Mr Lehrmann may have entry to a good jury.

Charges in opposition to him have been dropped in full final December over issues about Ms Higgins’ psychological well being.

Mr Sofronoff’s 839-page report referred to the ACT’s then Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, who scrutinized a few of Ms Higgins’s speeches and checked them for phrases which may jeopardize the trial – together with that of Logies.

“This was exactly what Mrs. Wilkinson wanted Mr. Drumgold to do,” Mr. Sofronoff stated.

“Nevertheless, to explain his failure, he later characterized Mrs. Wilkinson’s request as a request for legal advice.”

Mr Sofronoff additionally stated Mr Drumgold was ‘picky’ about who he suggested, as he assisted Ms Higgins on three events with issues that would have an effect on the trial, however refused to do the identical for Wilkinson.

Mr Drumgold resigned after the report was launched, however issued a scathing assertion on his means out, saying: “Having read the report, I dispute many of the negative findings about me.”

He admitted to creating “mistakes” throughout the trial, however “strongly disputed” that he was “unfair” and “engaged in deliberate or underhanded conduct during the trial.”

“While I accept that my conduct was not perfect, my decisions were all made in good faith, under intense and at times crippling pressure, carried out within increasingly difficult workloads,” stated Mr Drumgold.