Former Australian govt party adviser accused of 2nd rape

Sydney, Australia, Feb 20 (efe-epa).- A woman said Saturday she was raped by a former adviser to the government party accused this week of raping another co-worker in parliament, according to local media reports.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed his discomfort at this second complaint at a press conference via his Facebook profile. The accusation was made in an interview with The Australian newspaper by an anonymous woman who said she works for the Liberal Party.

The woman claimed to have been raped by the same man – of unknown identity – whom the former adviser to the government party, Brittany Higgins, accused last Monday of having raped her in a ministerial office in Parliament in March 2019.

In his interview with the Australian newspaper he said she has decided to raise her voice to expose the working environment in parliament, adding that her aggression would never have taken place had the rape against Higgins in 2019 been better managed.

Higgins announced yesterday that she will file a formal complaint with the police for the abuses suffered in March 2019, when a man who worked for the Liberal Party raped her in the parliamentary office of Defense Minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019.

Higgins declared to have spoken with police in April of that year, but finally decided not to file a formal complaint for fear that it would have negative repercussions on her professional career.

The former Liberal Party adviser also claimed to have related the rape to a member of Reynolds’ team, but she felt she downplayed the problem when she asked him to attend a meeting in the same room as the events.

Morrison apologized to the media Tuesday for the way the complaint was handled and assured that he had commissioned his team to carry out an investigation to improve the process for handling complaints and reports at work. EFE-EPA

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