‘Coming for you’: sinister emails sent to Bruce Lehrmann

Bruce Lehrmann received a mysterious, threatening email telling him to ‘think about what you did’, weeks before Brittany Higgins went public with her rape allegations.

Bruce Lehrmann was sent an anonymous, threatening email three weeks before Brittany Higgins went public with her allegation she had been raped in Parliament House. Picture: John Feder

Bruce Lehrmann received a mysterious, threatening email headed “Coming for you” and suggesting he “think about what you did”, three weeks before Brittany Higgins went public with her allegation she had been raped in Parliament House by an unnamed former Liberal staffer.

The anonymous email cites a speech by sexual-assault activist Grace Tame and refers to cameras and security staff in Parliament House. The email appeared to have been sent by “Bruce Lehrmann”, but Mr Lehrmann told police the Outlook address from which it came was not his, nor one that he had ever set up.

The Federal Court on Friday released the email in a further tranche of documents from Mr Lehrmann’s defamation cases against the Ten Network and News Corp.

Sent at 11.11pm on January 25, 2021, the email begins: “Bruce, A woman spoke about what happened to her tonight, and she’s Australian of the Year.” The reference appears to be to Ms Tame, who was on that day named Australian of the Year for her advocacy on behalf of survivors of sexual assault in Tasmania who had been prevented from speaking out by the state’s harsh gag laws.

The email continues: “I want you to think about what you did, and what might be around the corner for you. It’s inspiring when justice is delivered and the truth comes out. You know what they said: The truth will set you free.

“How many people know what you did, and how many did you tell. How many cameras are in Parliament House and how many people tracked down the vision.

“Think about it. Two former staffers from Aussies, now security guards. It’s going to be a magical 2021.”

A second email simply has the subject line: “Truth will come out”.

Ms Higgins did not name Mr Lehrmann in her interview with Ten’s The Project on February 15, 2021, or in a news.com.au story published earlier that day, and evidence presented during the defamation case last week suggested that even close friends of Mr Lehrmann were still speculating about the identity of the alleged rapist that evening.

Texts show friends asking Mr Lehrmann if he knew “who the guy was?” Mr Lehrmann responds to one: “Not the faintest idea. I haven’t been approached by anyone.” To another, he replies: “No idea in the slightest.”

The Federal Court also released Mr Lehrmann’s subpoenaed medical records from the Royal North Shore Hospital, where he presented himself the day after Ms Higgins made her allegations. A psychiatrist wrote that the admission was “due to a deterioration in mental state with suicidal thoughts”.

Mr Lehrmann is said to be “teary, distressed at times, polite”, and described as “a social drinker” with “occasional cocaine use”.

Mr Lehrmann told hospital staff he had suffered “trauma from an abusive relationship for seven months over 2019, his girlfriend at the time often physical (sic) hit him, verbally abused him and controlled him”. “He sustained a serious hand injury (laceration) in one incident, during which she hit him with a smashed cup. At this point, they broke up.”

The incident as described would have occurred some time after the March 23 assault alleged by Ms Higgins, but the woman is not the girlfriend mentioned in text exchanges released by the court last week.

Mr Lehrmann, who has consistently denied raping Ms Higgins, launched defamation proceedings against Ten and News Life Media Pty Ltd – an arm of News Corp Australia, publisher of The Weekend Australian – in the Federal Court a month ago.

Ms Wilkinson, former co-host of The Project, and Samantha Maiden, political editor for news.com.au, are second respondents in the proceedings.

Both media outlets, Ms Wilkinson and Ms Maiden will rely on defences of truth and qualified privilege if Justice Michael Lee agrees to extend Mr Lehrmann’s deadline for bringing the case.