Bruce Lehrmann spoke to Brittany Higgins when leaving Linda Reynolds’ office, court hears
Bruce Lehrmann has denied accusations that he told his former boss and a close family friend that he spoke to Brittany Higgins on his way out of Parliament House.
Bruce Lehrmann told his boss and a close family friend that he spoke to a “happy” Brittany Higgins as he left her in Parliament House, a court has heard, despite consistently giving evidence that he did not see his colleague again after they entered the office of Linda Reynolds on the night she was allegedly raped.
The Federal Court on Monday also heard Mr Lehrmann lied to Senator Reynolds about his reason for being in Parliament House on the night of the alleged assault, telling her he never told security guards manning the front desk he was there to collect documents on her behalf.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over her interview with Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021, detailing accusations that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins but not naming him as the alleged attacker.
Mr Lehrmann has maintained throughout his evidence that upon entering Senator Reynolds’s office with Ms Higgins on the night of the alleged assault, he went left, she went right, and the pair never saw each other again.
Last week, he marked up a floorplan of the office from the witness box to prove as much.
On Monday, Ten’s barrister, Matthew Collins KC, suggested that Mr Lehrmann told Senator Reynolds’s chief of staff, Fiona Brown, in the presence of another staffer, Reginald Chamberlain, that he remembered Ms Higgins being “happy” as he exited the suite.
Ms Brown, Mr Lehrmann and Mr Chamberlain had a phone call on April 5, 2019, to discuss the termination of Mr Lehrmann’s employment after he had entered Parliament House with Ms Higgins after hours about 1.30am on March 23, 2019.
Dr Collins: “Do you recollect Ms Brown asking you what state Ms Higgins was in when you had left on the morning of the 23rd?”
Mr Lehrmann: “Uh, no.”
Dr Collins: “Do you recollect saying to Ms Brown, in Mr Chamberlain’s presence, that Ms Higgins was happy at the time you left on the 23rd of March, 2019?”
Mr Lehrmann: “No.”
Dr Collins: “Do you deny saying that?”
Mr Lehrmann: “Yeah, I don’t recall the conversation going to that.”
Dr Collins continued to press: “Do you deny saying to Ms Brown, in Mr Chamberlain’s presence, in the phone call on the fifth of March (sic) that when you left Parliament House at about 2.30 in the morning on the 23rd of March 2019, Ms Higgins was happy?”
Mr Lehrmann: “That didn’t happen.”
Dr Collins suggested to Mr Lehrmann that he had told Ms Brown that Ms Higgins had said goodbye as he left the office.
“In the conversation, did you say to Ms Brown, in Mr Chamberlain’s presence, that on the 23rd of March at the time you left parliament, you had to go home, and Ms Higgins said ‘Bye, see you next week’ and you said ‘Yes’,” Dr Collins said.
Mr Lehrmann denied this occurred.
Dr Collins also put to Mr Lehrmann that he had told his close family friend Lyndon Bienhoff that he spoke to Ms Higgins as he was leaving Parliament House that night.
Dr Collins: “You told Mr Bienhoff, didn’t you, that you said to Ms Higgins you were leaving?”
Mr Lehrmann denied this.
This exchange was struck from the court transcript because Mr Bienhoff is not an official witness to the case.
The court on Friday heard Mr Lehrmann confess to lying to Senator Reynolds after being caught entering Parliament House after hours on the night Ms Higgins was allegedly raped. CCTV footage from the night, previously played for the court, showed Mr Lehrmann tell security officers guarding the front door that he needed to get into the building to collect documents on behalf of Senator Reynolds.
However, in a letter written to Senator Reynolds on April 5, 2019, pleading to keep his job, Mr Lehrmann pushed back on the accusation that he had told the officers he was at Parliament House for official purposes.
In the letter, Mr Lehrmann wrote: “I offer no excuses and accept that entering the office after hours is a breach no matter what the reason.”
“I do, however, refute the claim that I informed security it was for official purposes,” he said.
“This insinuates I was acting under authority from you and this was in no way the case and I certainly did not make that inference.
“This action was the result of a serious lack of judgment on my part and I apologise and regret it happening.”
On Monday, Dr Collins put to Mr Lehrmann that this was a lie.
“Well I was probably trying to play it down, Dr Collins,” he said.
Asked by Dr Collins why he lied to Senator Reynolds, Mr Lehrmann responded: “I can’t take myself to my mindset (while) drafting this ... there were other matters going on as well.”
On Monday, Mr Lehrmann denied an accusation that his decision not to reach out to Ms Higgins after his employment was terminated was indicative of guilt.
Dr Collins grilled him over why he didn’t reach out to his colleague, after he was sacked in part because he had entered Parliament House after hours with her.
Dr Collins: “Did you ever make any contact with Ms Higgins to find out whether she had been the subject of disciplinary action in respect of the security breach?”
Mr Lehrmann: “No.”
Dr Collins: “Did you ever make any inquiry with her to see whether she had been terminated for the same … reasons as you had been terminated?”
Mr Lehrmann: “No.”
Dr Collins then accused Mr Lehrmann of not reaching out to Ms Higgins because he assumed she had told Ms Brown he had raped her. “I’ll suggest to you, that you never made contact with Ms Higgins because you knew very well that she had told Ms Brown that you sexually assaulted her.”
Mr Lehrmann: “No, that’s never been put to me.”
Dr Collins: “And you knew she had not been terminated because you had sexually assaulted her.”
Mr Lehrmann: “No.”
Text messages between Mr Lehrmann and his friends from the day Ms Higgins’s allegations were aired across news.com.au and The Project were tendered to the court on Monday.
In one message sent after the news.com.au article had been published but before The Project had aired, Mr Lehrmann said to friend John Macgowan: “They wouldn’t name, would they?”
Dr Collins suggested this message “reveal a consciousness that you knew the allegations were about you … a natural position of someone reading allegations of the kind made by Ms Higgins would be ‘My goodness, someone’s alleging they were raped in Parliament House’ not ‘They wouldn’t name, would they?’ ”
Mr Lehrmann replied: “No, not necessarily.”
Mr Lehrmann has vehemently and consistently denied allegations he raped Ms Higgins.
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