Panicked missed calls and ‘silly’ seat demands: New texts expose Lehrmann interview tensions

Only five days after accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann is alleged to have enjoyed two cocaine-fuelled nights at fancy restaurants and a visit to A Touch More Class brothel in Surry Hills – partially on the Channel Seven dime – a potential crisis threatened what Seven’s Spotlight program was hoping would be “the most amazing thing on Australian TV ever”.

It was January 11, 2023, and Spotlight supervising producer Steve Jackson was desperately trying to ring his colleague Taylor Auerbach, the producer appointed to be Lehrmann’s babysitter and minder.

“Can you call urgently??? Lehrmann has been charged with rape in Qld,” texted Jackson as his flurry of 10 calls went unanswered.

“Holy shit,” Auerbach finally replied.

Lehrmann was meant to appear in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court that day, but his lawyer said he was unwell and in Tasmania.

The Toowoomba court heard that in October 2021, Lehrmann was alleged to have had consensual sex with a woman he had met at a nightclub. She alleged Lehrmann later removed a condom without her permission and assaulted her twice.

Bruce Lehrmann was interviewed by the Seven Network’s Spotlight program.Credit: Seven Network

At the time, Lehrmann was on bail having been charged on August 6, 2021, with the sexual assault of his then Liberal colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

The Toowoomba matter will return to court in June for a committal hearing and Lehrmann’s lawyers have indicated he intends to enter a plea of not guilty.

During mid-October 2022, Auerbach was dispatched to Canberra to sit in on Lehrmann’s rape trial with the hope of signing him up for an exclusive interview.

While the jury was deliberating, Auerbach texted Jackson with good news: “I’ve got the yarn I’ve just been on the piss with Bruce Lehrmann.”

Auerbach reported that Lehrmann had been approached “from every direction – including Nine”. He said that “some print journo” had said to Lehrmann, “I know you’re going to get big money offers at the end of the trial. I can’t offer you money, but I can offer you integrity!”

In his text, Auerbach joked, “Don’t worry, they weren’t impressed by this.”

Auerbach told his boss that Lehrmann was “not out to make a buck out of this – he’s receiving pro bono legal representation. But he’s up to his eyeballs in debt”.

“If we can seal it, we’ve got to make it BIG. Will take a lot of work to cover all bases, recres [recreate] that unseen vision and audio. It should be the most amazing thing on Australian TV ever,” Jackson replied.

The text messages between Auerbach and others were tendered in the Federal Court last week after Justice Michael Lee allowed Channel Ten to reopen its case in the defamation trial Lehrmann had instigated against the network and its journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a February 2021 interview with Higgins in which she alleged an unnamed colleague had raped her in Parliament House.

Auerbach – who the court heard has had a major falling-out with Jackson and Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn – gave evidence over two days last week. He said that while in Canberra, Lehrmann’s “media minder”, John Macgowan, was pitching a $200,000 deal for Lehrmann.

Macgowan said on the social media platform X on Friday that he had started at $280,000. “If I had have known what a shit show it would have turned into I would have asked for more!” he wrote.

Only a month after his rape trial collapsed due to juror misconduct, Lehrmann, Macgowan, Auerbach and Llewellyn were nutting the deal at upmarket Italian restaurant Cipri in the Sydney suburb of Paddington.

Lehrmann had originally wanted to go to Beppi’s in Darlinghurst, but Llewellyn knocked that back because the minimum spend was $900, text exchanges reveal. Later that night, according to Auerbach, Lehrmann and Auerbach enjoyed the services of Thai masseuses at Auerbach’s apartment.

The trio at the centre of Spotlight: (from left) Taylor Auerbach, Mark Llewellyn and Steve Jackson.Credit:

Auerbach told the court there was a mad scramble by him the next day to pay cash and reverse more than $10,000 for the Sensai Thai massage services he’d put on the Seven credit card.

Three weeks later, on December 18, Lehrmann, Auerbach, Llewellyn and Macgowan enjoyed a golf weekend in Tasmania. In early January, Lehrmann was again on the hunt for favours.

On January 3, Lehrmann texted Auerbach saying: “I’m thinking about giving Mark a call and getting me up tomorrow to Sydney for a week perhaps.”

He was also pestering Auerbach to get him tickets to the Test cricket in Sydney.

“Your man isn’t going to come off well if he wants to be seen playing golf and watching cricket in a box,” said Jackson to Auerbach in a text. “He will look every bit the privileged white male his detractors believe him to be.”

Auerbach replied: “I’m going to tell him to save it, we’ll go to the Lord’s Test instead.”

Lehrmann persisted. “This is getting silly,” complained Auerbach, who said Lehrmann wanted to be flown to Sydney “so he can go to the cricket and see [The Australian journalist] Janet Albrechtsen.”

“He needs to understand the importance of keeping a low profile and staying out of the public eye,” Jackson said in a text. Auerbach replied: “I’m going to tell him he’s the leader of the opposition with a 15-point lead in the polls and he needs to shut the f--- up.”

But Lehrmann didn’t keep a low profile. On January 5, Lehrmann booked Franca, a French restaurant in Potts Point, for which Seven picked up the $500 bill. While at dinner, Lehrmann allegedly ordered cocaine for the city apartment Seven had arranged for him. The Federal Court heard last week that Lehrmann later arranged for sex workers to come.

The following night was on repeat, but this time they allegedly went to A Touch More Class, the Surry Hills brothel formerly known as A Touch of Class.

“He indicated to me he needed to replenish his bank account after the bender,” Auerbach told the court, explaining that Lehrmann had later recouped some of these outgoings from Seven via an invoice item for $750.

Asked by Matthew Collins, SC, for Channel Ten what the $750 charge for “pre-production expenses” related to, Auerbach replied: “Mr Lehrmann’s expenditure on cocaine and prostitutes.”

In March, Seven spent $12,000 for several weeks of accommodation for Lehrmann at a Randwick Airbnb and, in April, photos appeared on social media of Llewellyn entertaining Lehrmann at Sydney’s Randwick races.

Several senior media figures have expressed surprise at the lengths Spotlight went to in accommodating Lehrmann’s demands, especially since Seven appeared to be the only bidders for his “tell-all” interview.

Apart from the estimated $40,000 that Seven allegedly spent on Lehrmann’s wining, dining, accommodation, flights, cocaine and sex workers, during the defamation trial it was revealed that Seven had secretly agreed to pay Lehrmann’s rent for a year. The deal, worth more than $100,000, finished last week, and Lehrmann was recently seen moving out of the Balgowlah rental to accommodation in North Sydney.

Justice Lee has indicated he hopes to hand down his judgment in the defamation case towards the end of next week.

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