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Bruce Lehrmann often refers to struggles with his “headspace” amid the fallout from Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault allegations. He says he resorted to cocaine because he was spiralling. “I was in a pretty bad place,” he told the court.
So one can only imagine what was going on in his head as he braced for Kings Counsel Matt Collins to rake over his every move on Monday, picking apart closed-circuit footage of his movements, texts with his boss, and pages of messages with his friends.
Bruce Lehrmann arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney for his defamation trial on Monday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
In an intense day of questioning in the defamation action Lehrmann brought against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, Collins walked the political staffer-turned-law student through deep detail of two of the worst days of his life.
The day he was told to leave then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds’ office in disgrace, and the day he realised Higgins had gone to journalists with allegations she was raped in Parliament House and they had worked out she was talking about him.
Lehrmann alleges the Network Ten interview, which did not name him, defamed him by alleging he raped Higgins in Reynolds’ office in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
He cuts a lonely figure in court 22A, where the case is being heard before Justice Michael Lee of the Federal Court.
It’s a crowded room, with a phalanx of lawyers – at least 13 on Monday – as well as journalists, nosy members of the legal fraternity and the odd enthusiastic court watcher flocking to the cross-examination that’s gripped Sydney.
While they chatted and joked as they waited for court to resume, Lehrmann sat quietly by himself in his navy suit and white shirt, with one brown boot perched over his knee. Wilkinson sat on the opposite side of the court.
When he stepped into the witness box, Collins dived headlong into the minutiae of Lehrmann’s final day in parliament, when he was asked by Reynolds’ chief of staff Fiona Brown why he paid a midnight visit to the office. He was told to pack his things that day.
He was asked about repeatedly dodging calls and requests for meetings from Brown, with Collins suggesting Lehrmann avoided her because he suspected she knew Higgins’ version of what happened that night. He disagreed.
Journalist Lisa Wilkinson arrives in court, flanked by her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, on Monday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
There was, he said, “a lot going on,” and he was “not in the best headspace”. Collins suggested “not in the best headspace” really meant “your world was going to come crumbling down around you?”
He admitted he lied to Reynolds when he said he’d gone to visit his mother in Queensland, in a letter that also described his embarrassment, shame and remorse for accessing the office to drink with colleagues (he has since changed the reason for his after-hours visit, saying it was to get keys and do some work).
When asked why he lied, he told the court there’d been plans to go to Queensland. “I can’t take myself back there to why,” Lehrmann said.
After lunch, Collins moved onto another miserable day for Lerhmann; the day Higgins’ allegations broke. Lehrmann told the court he first saw the News.com.au article about Higgins at 8am.
“Immediately upon reading it,” asked Collins, “you knew that you were the person being accused?” “No,” he replied; he did not know that until about 2pm, when a journalist put the question to his then-employer, British American Tobacco.
Collins said his reply contradicted his evidence at another hearing, which suggested he did know. He asked why Lehrmann didn’t recognise himself in detail such as the night of drinking with colleagues and the reference to the perpetrator being a rising star.
“I didn’t consider myself a rising star,” he replied. He also said he didn’t go through the article carefully. “I had a very busy day that day.”
Collins took him through messages from people who’d asked him about the story, knowing he worked for Reynolds. One asked if he knew the “chick” or had any gossip, describing the allegation as “pretty cooked” (Justice Michael Lee queried the word’s definition, and was told it meant “messed up”). “Yeah, worked with her before,” he’d replied.
He consulted close friends – some of them now former friends – about making a statement of denial, but was dissuaded. He told someone else the allegations were slanderous and defamatory. Collins suggested those comments suggested “a consciousness that you knew they were about you,” which Lehrmann denied.
Lehrmann’s ACT criminal trial was aborted last year due to juror misconduct and the charge was dropped altogether due to concerns about Higgins’ health. He has repeatedly denied having sex with Higgins on the couch in Reynold’s office.
Collins’ questioning of Lehrmann will continue on Tuesday.
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