Jennifer Robinson Links High-Profile Abuse Cases in Film Silenced

From a New South Wales Women’s Shelter to Global Human Rights Law

Long before she represented high-profile clients on the international stage, human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson received an early education in the realities of domestic abuse. As a child growing up in New South Wales, she and her sister frequently visited their grandmother, Philipa Cracknell, at work. Cracknell worked at Bonnie, only the second shelter established in NSW for women escaping violent partners. Robinson recalls knowing even then that they were never to answer the front door because a violent man might be standing on the other side.

Decades later, while on a break from her legal practice in London—where her work included helping defend WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—Robinson visited her grandmother on the NSW south coast. Finding her grandmother depressed over radio statistics on violence against women that showed no improvement since her time working at the refuge, Robinson experienced a turning point. I was like, ‘I have to find a way to work on violence against women, but what is my way of doing this?’ I’m a free-speech lawyer. What am I going to do?’ she recounts. The advent of the #MeToo movement provided her answer, setting her on a path to defend women facing defamation suits after speaking out.

How Silenced Connects Amber Heard, Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, and Brittany Higgins

Robinson’s book How Many More Women?, co-written with Dr Keina Yoshida, serves as the foundation for the documentary film Silenced. Produced by Selina Miles and Blayke Hoffman, the International Emmy-award-winning documentary explores the weaponisation of defamation laws to intimidate, discredit, and bankrupt victim-survivors of sexual assault and gender-based violence. The film follows three primary cases to illustrate the global scope of the issue.

The central case features actor Amber Heard. In 2020, Heard testified about abuse by her ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp, during a libel suit brought by Depp against the UK newspaper The Sun after it labelled him a wife beater. Although a court ruled the newspaper’s description was substantially true after finding 12 of 14 alleged incidents occurred, Depp subsequently sued Heard in a US court in 2022 over a Washington Post opinion piece where she described herself as a domestic violence survivor without naming him.

Alongside Heard, the documentary examines Colombian journalist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, who faced multiple legal challenges from filmmaker Ciro Guerra following a #MeToo exposé, and Australian former political staffer Brittany Higgins.

Brittany Higgins on the Legal Toll and Staying Proud of Her Name

Brittany Higgins entered public attention in 2021 through a television interview with journalist Lisa Wilkinson, in which she alleged she was raped by fellow political staffer Bruce Lehrmann in 2019 inside the Parliament House office of then-Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds. In Silenced, Higgins describes the toll of giving evidence during Lehrmann’s 2022 criminal trial in the ACT, which ultimately was aborted due to juror misconduct.

“I had heard that the process was ugly and I knew it would be terrible. They’ll take every bit of data that you have. Your diaries. My counselling records. My doctors’ visits. Everything. Getting ready for that process every morning, putting on clothes that make you look like someone who is ‘rapeable’, quote unquote, and yet someone who is also respectable, it’s so nerve-racking and so stressful.”

Brittany Higgins, via theguardian.com

The documentary also details the severe mental health impact of the ongoing media spotlight, with Higgins revealing that police intervened during a point when she almost took her life. Following the scrutiny, Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, fled the country in 2023 for France, where journalists tracked them down and located their property. We didn’t realise the level we were being stalked, Higgins says in the film, noting that security threats even extended to their dog.

Lehrmann later sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over the initial broadcast. He lost that case when Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found, on the balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann had raped Higgins. The High Court subsequently dismissed Lehrmann’s final legal appeal in April 2024. Although Higgins was later sued successfully for defamation by her former boss Linda Reynolds—a suit not featured in the documentary—Higgins walked the red carpet at the Sydney Film Festival alongside Robinson to celebrate the film’s Australian debut.

“When I got married I had this opportunity to change my name but I didn’t because I’m really proud to be Brittany Higgins. Hopefully, this is just a footnote in my story and it’s not the headliner any more.”

Brittany Higgins, via theguardian.com

Holding her baby boy in a scene from the film, Higgins acknowledged the long road ahead. It’s going to take a while to fully feel OK again, she said, But we’re getting there.