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A friend of the woman who claimed she was raped by Christian Porter 30 years ago, which he denies, has threatened to sue the former attorney general for libel for comments made at a press conference which, according to her, questioned my honesty and my integrity.
Jo Dyer who brought the case which saw Porters’ star lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC barred from acting in her now defamation offer against the CBA released a statement on Tuesday saying she sent legal advice to Porter after the heated press conference he held after dropping his lawsuit against the public broadcaster.
Porter told reporters he believed it was comments made during cross-examination in this case that forced the CBA to seek mediation from us.
My point of view is that there is compelling evidence in court that someone was trained by Louise Milligan to destroy important communications, my point of view is that this is what drove the ABC, brought them forced to ask us for mediation and forced them to the point where they said they regret the outcome of the article, he said.
Porters’ comments appeared to refer to evidence provided by Dyer during cross-examination in the Chrysanthou case. Pushed by Porters attorney Chris Withers SC on why she deleted Signal messages between herself and Milligan whose Four Corners story was at the center of the libel case, she said it was was in part following requests from the ABC reporter.
Dyer said it was partly from Milligan’s advice and more generally I guess my filing and curating processes are somewhat chaotic and people closest to me have suggested it might be better to be more careful. [given] the sensitive nature of the issues clearly debated in this case.
Dyer said she didn’t remember when Milligan asked her to delete the messages, but said: By the time we switched to Signal, Ms Milligan obviously reinforced that this was a way more confidential communication. I think there was a hope that I would remove as I went. I can say that I didn’t pay much attention to the posts and deleted them en masse a few months ago.
The ABC has said it categorically rejects the claim that Milligan coached Dyer. The broadcaster also said the comments did not affect the deal between the parties.
The suggestion is not only an insult to Ms Milligan, but also to Ms Dyers’ intelligence and integrity, the public broadcaster said.
On Tuesday, Dyer released a statement in which she claimed Porter challenged my honesty and integrity and further claimed that this was the second time the former Attorney General has made defamatory comments about her after previously issuing a statement suggesting that the action to restrict Chrysanthou was part of a bad last-minute legal strategy.
Yesterday Mr Porter alleged that after being coached by Ms Milligan I destroyed important communications that could have affected his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the CBA. This is nonsense, Dyer said.
There was nothing improper, illegal or sinister about my decisions to save or delete certain posts, decisions that were made long before Mr. Porter launched his now discontinued action against Ms. Milligan and the ABC.
This afternoon, Marque Lawyers sent a second Notice of Concern to Mr. Porter regarding his continuing defamatory comments about me.
The Guardian did not see the notice of concern and contacted lawyers for Porters for comment.
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