Key events
A barrister acting for News Corp, publisher of news.com.au, has appeared in court to say the details of News Corp’s legal settlement with Bruce Lehrmann – particularly the dollar value of the settlement – are confidential and should not be subjected to cross-examination.
Lisa Wilkinson’s silk Sue Chrysanthou SC told the court she should be allowed to ask questions of the witness, Lehrmann.
Justice Michael Lee said it is his job to protect the witness from too many cross-examinations by different barristers.
Chrysanthou has asked for access to the two confidential legal settlements Lehrmann reached with News Corp and the ABC.
Lee has agreed to her request for access to the settlements.
Both media organisations settled with Lehrmann before the trial started.
Chrysanthou said News Corp is “one of the largest media conglomerates in the country and I’m pretty sure is in favour of freedom of speech and open justice”.
Lee warned Chrysanthou not to make speeches.
Bruce Lehrmann, photographed on his way into court today:
How Lehrmann’s name was revealed
Bruce Lehrmann has agreed that the first publication to name him and publish photographs of him was not The Project or news.com.au but two independent crime websites.
Matt Collins:
So you understood when you saw this, this was an investigation that [True Crime News Weekly] had undertaken of your social media presence?
Lehrmann:
Clearly, yeah. And … probably with some assistance.
Collins said the article referred to Lehrmann’s LinkedIn profile and other social media accounts.
Wilkinson’s silk Sue Chrysanthou is now on her feet asking Justice Michael Lee for leave to cross-examine Lehrmann.
Questions about night The Project interview went to air
Bruce Lehrmann stayed up all night and got home at 6.30am after The Project aired in 2021 but he said in his affidavit that he went home and couldn’t sleep, a federal court has heard this morning.
After the court was shown a text he sent saying he was going home at 6.30am, he said:
My recollection is I went home at some point, I clearly didn’t recall either going out again, and coming back home.
Lehrmann agreed under cross-examination that he had presented at Royal North Shore hospital on the Tuesday after The Project aired on the Monday night.
Network Ten’s barrister Matt Collins KC took Lehrmann to notes about a conversation he had with a doctor at the hospital when he was seen at 9pm.
Collins put it to him that he had told the medical registrar he had been “contacted by multiple journalists on the morning of 15 February”.
Lehrmann disagreed, saying he would not have told the doctor that. Lehrmann said he had not received an email from The Project producer and he had not had contact with any other journalists until the afternoon.
This blog will cover major developments during the day.
In the interests of open justice and due to significant public interest, the federal court is livestreaming this case.
You can follow it on YouTube.
Good morning
Bruce Lehrmann is back in the witness box today under cross-examination in the fifth day of the defamation trial he brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case and you can read more about their defences here:
It was revealed in the federal court yesterday under cross-examination that the former Liberal staffer had lied twice in a letter to his boss and again in an interview he gave to Seven’s Spotlight program.
Collins then asked: “What explanation do you give for that lie?”
Lehrmann could not explain why he lied to his boss about his whereabouts, saying he was in Canberra but he had plans to go back to Queensland; and his “headspace” was unclear about the allegations he was facing and he was “was probably trying to play it down”.
He admitted lying during an interview with Channel 7’s Spotlight program about his reason for lying to Brown about why he entered Parliament House after hours. He said he had lied in the interview with Seven because it was “hastily arranged” and was a “very nerve-racking time”.
He has been cross-examined for multiple hours by Ten’s silk, Matt Collins KC, who has asked him to explain why he gave differing accounts of what happened in the wake of an after-hours visit to Parliament House in 2019.
Before the end of proceedings on Monday Lehrmann explained to Justice Michael Lee that he was under so much pressure after Brittany Higgins went public on The Project with an allegation of rape that his mental health had “spiralled” and he asked a friend to bring him cocaine.
Collins:
Your reaction to spiralling was to ask for cocaine … to have cocaine brought to you?
Lehrmann:
I was in a bad place. Yes.
It is unclear when Lehrmann’s cross-examination will wrap up but Lee said on Monday that Wilkinson’s silk, Sue Chrysanthou SC, would be given leave to cross-examine Lehrmann in a limited manner.
Lee said it was unfair for a witness to be examined by two different barristers on the same subject.
Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and, in a previous criminal trial about the matter, pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
The criminal trial was aborted after it was discovered a juror had conducted their own research in relation to the case and had taken the document into the deliberation room.
In December prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.
