A little after midnight on the night The Project aired an interview with Brittany Higgins accusing an unidentified colleague of raping her, former federal Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann texted a friend to say “I won’t be going to prison”, the Federal Court heard on Thursday.

But that message, as well as a flurry of others sent to his former girlfriend saying “criminal is off the cards completely” and he was “up for millions in defamation” were either invented or direct advice from his criminal lawyer, Warwick Korn, a Sydney hearing was told.