Bruce Lehrmann has denied telling colleagues that he thought Brittany Higgins was “good looking” as his version of the Parliament House alleged sexual assault came under cross examination for the first time.
Mr Lehrmann spent a majority of Thursday in the witness box in the Federal Court and as he vehemently denied raping Ms Higgins or ever having any sexual contact with her.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over their reporting of allegations made by Ms Higgins in a The Project interview that she was raped inside Parliament House on the evening of March 22, 2019.
The court has heard that Mr Lehrmann claims that the program, which was first aired on February 15, 2021, painted him as a “predator”, left him “severely isolated” and he was abandoned by friends and colleagues.
He did not give evidence at his criminal trial, during which the jury was played a video of his interview with AFP officers.
After being questioned by his solicitor Steve Whybrow for most of the day, his cross examination by Ten’s barrister Dr Matt Collins KC began on Thursday afternoon, marking the first time his version of events has been challenged in court.
During at-times tense questioning, Mr Lehrmann denied telling a colleague that he told them that he thought Ms Higgins was “good looking” while at a Canberra pub in March 2019.
“I don’t recall this conversation,” Mr Lehrmann said.
Dr Collins asked whether he told a female colleague: “Message her and see if she’s free to come to the pub.”
“I don’t recall that happening,” Mr Lehrmann said.
He also denied on that occasion snatching Ms Higgins’ phone as she attempted to order an Uber to leave the pub.
“That did not happen,” Mr Lehrmann said.
Mr Lehrmann earlier in the day told Justice Michael Lee that he left Parliament House on the Friday evening of the alleged incident to have a “brief dinner” with a colleague at a nearby hotel.
He said while at the Kingston Hotel, he received an invitation to The Dock bar for drinks.
“From my recollection there was an invite from Ms Higgins to me,” Mr Lehrmann has told the court.
He says he had several “cordial” interactions with Ms Higgins at The Dock while he and his mate sat at another table.
Mr Lehrmann has told the court that they stayed at the Dock until midnight before, at his suggestion, they move on to the 88MPH bar.
He said the group stayed there for about an hour and a half before he told the group he had to go to Parliament House to pick up his keys and Ms Higgins said she had to go as well, Mr Lehrmann told the court
He said he did not ask Ms Higgins why she had to go there as well.
“I indicated I had to go to get my keys at parliament before going home, Ms Higgins indicated she had to go to parliament,” he said.
“I was ordering my Uber and offered her a lift in the Uber.“
Once at Parliament House, he told security he was there to pick up documents for Senator Linda Reynolds and that he had forgotten his pass.
Asked by Mr Whybrow whether that was accurate, he said “No.”
Asked why he was there, he told the court: “To get my keys to go home.”
“Why didn’t you say that?” Mr Whybrow asked.
“I thought security would say bugger off and come back next week and I needed to get home,” Mr Lehrmann told the court.
“R U OK?”
Mr Lehrmann argues that despite not being named in The Project broadcast, he was identified by it.
Social media messages released by the Federal Court on Thursday showed that in the days following The Project interview with Ms Higgins, he was contacted by concerned friends.
“As your mate, I need to call you brother,” read one message from February 17 - two days after the broadcast.
“Hi Bruce, R U OK?” said another from the same day.
Another from several days later said: “Just reaching out because saw some not nice things floating around on Twitter. You don’t have to reply to this message or say anything, but just thought I’d let you know I don’t believe anything floating around out there!”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT”
The court was on Thursday played CCTV of the pair proceeding through the halls to Senator Reynolds’s office.
Once inside, he insisted he went to the left and Ms Higgins went to the right, in the direction of the personal suites of the minister and her chief of staff.
“You went down to your desk,” Mr Whybrow asked.
“Yes,” he said.
He said he spent 30 to 40 minutes writing ministerial notes while they were “fresh” in his mind.
“Did you sexually assault Brittany Higgins in that office on that evening,” Mr Whybrow asked.
“Absolutely not,” he said.
He said he did not see her after she entered the office, describing the evening as “innocuous.”
Asked if he saw Ms Higgins after they went their separate ways as they entered Senator Reynolds’ office, he said: “I did not.”
He said he then exited out the back and got an Uber home.
“HI BRUCE”
He described the following Monday as an “ordinary work day.”
The court heard that he received an email from Ms Higgins on the Tuesday which stated: “Hi Bruce … Need some help with the task Drew sent me. I’m hoping to utilise your parliamentary network to get portfolio stats from whichever offices you can.”
He said that later in the morning he was called into Senator Reynolds’ office by her chief of staff, Fiona Brown, and was told to pack up his belongings.
He said he was told that his after-hours entry into Parliament House four days earlier represented a breach of the ministerial code of conduct.
While in the meeting he said he told Ms Brown that he entered the office on the Friday night to “drink whisky”.
He said he was worried about the “flow-on effects” and whether it could be viewed as a more serious breach if he had said he was working on ministerial notes.
“COMPLETELY DESTROYED”
He said he first learned he was subject of sexual assault allegations at 2pm on February 15, 2021 - the day the story broke on News.com and on The Project later that evening.
He said his bosses at British American Tobacco received an email from a journalist at The Australian, Rosie Lewis, asking for comment.
He said he hired a lawyer, Rick Korn and went home to speak to his girlfriend about what was about to come.
Ten says that before the broadcast it attempted to contact Mr Lehrmann via email and phone, however he did not respond to requests for comment.
The court has heard that producer Angus Llewellyn first used a mobile number - which Ms Higgins’ partner David Sharaz had obtained from an old media release.
The court heard Mr Llewellyn had attempted to contact Mr Lehrmann using two email addresses - a hotmail address and a work address for a job which Mr Lehrmann had previously left.
However Mr Lehrmann said he did not read the email on his hotmail account until a week later.
And he said by that time he had not used the phone number, which Mr Llewellyn called, for approximately two years.
He described the program’s attempts to contact him as “incredibly weak”.
Asked by Mr Whybrow if he had any sexual contact with Ms Higgins, he said: “None whatsoever.”
He also similarly denied ever trying to kiss her.
“Well it’s completely destroyed me,” Mr Lehrmann told the court of The Project segment’s effect on his life.
“Everything flowed from that. Losing friends, finances, certain sections of my friends haven’t bothered to contact me. It’s fractured large parts of my life.”
EJECT
Mr Lehrmann told the court that he was ostracised by friends after the allegations being aired on The Project.
He said after the allegations were made public he was removed from group chats, blocked and unfriended on social media.
Mr Lehrmann told the court that he was also involved in another Facebook chat with fellow Nationals state and federal staffers.
He said that after The Project interview aired, someone posted a picture saying “eject” before every other member of the group left, leaving him as the only remaining member.
A picture of the group chat and the “eject” message were released by the Federal Court on Thursday.
Network 10 and Ms Wilkinson are defending the lawsuit and have flagged they will rely on defences of truth and qualified privilege.
Mr Lehrmann stood trial in the ACT Supreme Court last year after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting Ms Higgins, but the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.
The charges were subsequently dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions due to concerns about Ms Higgins’ mental health.
Mr Lehrmann has continued to deny the allegations and no adverse findings have been made against him.
Mr Lehrmann also launched defamation proceedings against the ABC over the live broadcast of a National Press Club address by Ms Higgins, however the court heard on Wednesday the national broadcaster has settled those proceedings.
The trial continues.
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