‘F**ked’: Seven producer’s texts from night with Bruce Lehrmann revealed
Taylor Auerbach’s texts to his boss that Bruce Lehrmann was on the “warpath” have been published by the Federal Court.
Taylor Auerbach’s texts to his boss that Bruce Lehrmann was “on the warpath” and claiming that the Thai masseuse night was “no anomaly” have been published by the Federal Court.
Former Seven producer Auerbach has previously told the Federal Court that after calling two Thai masseuses to his Elizabeth Bay home in November 2022, when Mr Lehrmann was in situ, that the pair then spent another night together in January.
Mr Lehrmann has denied the Thai masseuse claim and insists he never got a massage.
During a subsequent alleged “bender” in January, 2023, Auerbach has claimed in evidence to the Federal Court that cocaine was bought and used and that more sex workers were called.
On January 5, 2023, he claims that Mr Lehrmann bought a bag of cocaine at a dinner at Franca at Potts Point and “put it on a plate” at the Meriton hotel room that was being paid for by Seven.
Text messages published by the Federal Court on Friday show Auerbach texted his then-boss, Spotlight’s supervising producer Steve Jackson, on January 5 and 6.
Auerbach said he contacted his boss Jackson and said he was worried, given the previous events with the Thai masseuses.
Auerbach said he recalled texting Jackson that Bruce was “on the warpath again”.
“This is f**ked,’’ he said.
At 12.15am, after Auerbach claims he took cocaine, he texted “warpath again”.
On Thursday, he told the court that this was a reference to the previous incident in November 2022 involving Thai masseuses.
However, at 3.37am on January 6, Auerbach texted again after he alleges he spent the night taking cocaine with Mr Lehrmann.
“OMG I have got the greatest yarns ever,’’ he told his boss.
Messages with Bruce Lehrmann over Brittany Higgins’ ex-boyfriend’s police interview
In a fourth affidavit, Auerbach says that he became aware of a subpoena to Seven in relation to the Spotlight program when he read or saw media reports in or around early December, 2023.
“At this time I was concerned that I was in possession of material in relation to the Spotlight episodes concerning (Bruce Lehrmann) which may have been caught by the subpoena,’’ Auerbach said.
“I contacted my lawyer in relation to those concerns and do not waive privilege over any advice I received.”
The affidavit includes screenshots of Auerbach’s Instagram messages with Mr Lehrmann.
“My messages to the applicant on 6 June, 2023, refer to a Dillaway audio and police interview,’’ he said.
“This is a reference to an audio file of Ben Dillaway’s police interview that I listened to in the Seven studios at Everleigh on multiple occasions prior to the broadcast of the first episode regarding the applicant on 4 June.
“The file was located in a folder on an external hard drive located in Nick Brenner’s edit suite and the transcript of the interview (that was hyperlinked by time stamps to the audio file) was located on Seven’s rev account, being an online transcription service.”
Ben Dillaway is Brittany Higgins’ former colleague and boyfriend. Thousands of text messages between Ms Higgins and Mr Dillaway were leaked to the media. Mr Lehrmann denies being the source of this or any other leak.