Australian attorney general denies rape allegation

PERTH: Australia’s atorney general outed himself as the unnamed cabinet minister accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, denying the decades-old allegation on Wednesday and seeking to draw a line under a crisis consuming the country’s conservative government.

Ater a speculation-filled week that has roiled Australian politics, 50-year-old Christian Porter - the government’s top lawyer and a former state prosecutor - tearfully denied wrongdoing, saying “what is being alleged did not happen.”

He stands accused of raping a fellow student in 1988 while they atended a debating competition at the University of Sydney.

Porter insisted he would not step down, but would take a few “short weeks” off to deal with the mental strain caused by the allegations, while reportedly hiring a top defamation lawyer.

“I’ve discussed with the prime minister today that ater speaking with my own doctor I’m going to take a short period of leave to assess and hopefully improve my own mental health,” he said.

Porter was forced to come forward ater senior lawmakers received a dossier seting out the claims of the alleged victim, who died last year before making a formal complaint to police.

Her death - reported to be suicide - is the subject of an ongoing coroner’s investigation.

Although Porter’s identity as the accused was widely known, Australia’s defamation rules had prevented media from naming him publicly.

The Western Australia representative insisted he was the victim of a “whispering campaign” and “frenzied politicisation” driven by the media.

“I did not sleep with the victim,” Porter said. “I remember the person as an intelligent, bright, happy person.”

“For the many caring family and friends who have asked me that question over the course of the last week, ‘ Are you OK?’ I have got to say... I really don’t know,” he said, breaking down.

Porter appeared in front of the cameras a day ater police said they found “insufficient admissible evidence to proceed” with a prosecution in the case.

Prime Minister Scot Morrison had insisted the allegations were a mater for the police, but there are now mounting calls for an independent investigation.

Morrison’s government has been rocked by a series of sexual assault scandals in recent months, including harrowing allegations that a young staffer was raped by a colleague in the parliamentary office of the now-minister of defence Linda Reynolds.

Britany Higgins, 26, said she was treated like a “political problem” when she reported the 2019 incident, which occurred just a month before national elections.

Reynolds also took medical leave ater the allegations.