Bruce Lehrmann told the federal court Lisa Wilknson’s interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project in 2021 “completely destroyed me”.
The former Liberal staffer took the stand on Thursday, the second day of the Lehrmann v Network 10 trial, to give evidence on the night Brittany Higgins alleges Lehrmann raped her in Parliament House in March 2019.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegations and in his testimony, he said her allegations are “completely false”.
“It was an innocuous evening, a social Friday night,” Lehrmann told the judge.
“Through to the next week on Monday and Tuesday, it was ordinary professional work.”
‘Her tone was tense’
Lehrmann admitted to lying to both security staff and Senator Linda Reynold’s chief-of-staff Fiona Brown as to why he and Brittany Higgins breached security by going to Parliament House on the night of the alleged rape in March 2019.
Lehrmann, with Higgins, returned to Parliament House after a night out to get his house keys so he could go home, according to his testimony. However, at the time, Lehrmann told security officers he needed to access some “parliamentary documents”.
When questioned on why he lied to security, he said he imagined “security would have said ‘bugger off and come back next week’, and I needed to get home”.
Lehrmann also told the court that, on the following Tuesday, he told Senator Reynold’s chief-of-staff Fiona Brown he returned to Parliament House to “drink whiskey”.
The reason he lied to Brown, Lehrmann said, was he was “incredibly nervous” of “flow-on effects” that may have occurred on further information of his security breach. He also said Brown’s “tone was tense”.
‘It was the pinnacle… everything flowed from that’
Questioning moved on to the effect of the article published in news.com.au by journalist Samantha Maiden the morning of February 15, 2021, which included Brittany Higgins’ allegations of rape in Parliament House in March 2019.
“It was political in nature,” Lehrmann said.
“I was shocked, like everyone else… (that was) my initial reaction.”
The episode of The Project that including Lisa Wilkinson’s interview with Brittany Higgins also aired on the night of February 15. Lehrmann told the court that this media coverage caused him to “completely spiral”.
“I ended up becoming quite suicidal,” he said, explaining his admittance to Royal North Shore Hospital that night for mental health reasons.
Lehrmann’s barrister, Steven Whybrow SC, referred to affidavits alleging Network Ten attempted to get in contact with Lehrmann prior to the airing of The Project interview between Wilkinson and Higgins.
Lehrmann called the affidavits “incredibly weak” and denied any attempts of media getting in contact with him to alert him of the coverage.
Whybrow asked Lehrmann to describe to Judge Michael Lee the effect The Project’s episode had on him up to this point in time.
“It’s completely destroyed me,” Lehrmann said.
“It was the pinnacle… everything flowed from that – losing friends, finances, certain sections of my family… it’s fractured large parts of my life.”
Lehrmann was never named in the interview, but he alleges his name was widely searched online and on social media following the airing of The Project’s episode.
Lerhmann faced a criminal trial in October 2022. However, the trial collapsed due to juror misconduct. A retrial was abandoned over concern for Higgins’ health.
Wilkinson is expected to take the stand during the trial, which is expected to run for approximately four weeks.
PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter