More details emerge of Bruce Lehrmann’s boozy night with masseuses

The last thing a friend of Bruce Lehrmann recalls about a boozy night out at the apartment of former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach was seeing Lehrmann disappear into a room with one of two Thai masseuses.

His account directly contradicts Lehrmann’s claim that the details of the night were not true.

Taylor Auerbach, left, is set to give evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case.

The man, whom this masthead has not named for legal reasons, recalled the trio arrived at Auerbach’s harbourside apartment in the early hours of Saturday, November 26, 2022.

“The last thing I saw when I left [early in the morning] was Bruce and a woman going into a room with literally nothing in it but a piano. It was so surreal, it was like something from a David Lynch film,” he said.

One of the masseuses featured in a Sensai Thai Massage advertisement.

Before arriving at the apartment, the three men had enjoyed a boozy dinner at Cipri restaurant in Paddington with Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn. At the time, Seven was trying to secure an exclusive interview with Lehrmann, whose criminal trial for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins had recently been abandoned because of juror misconduct.

Lehrmann has continued to maintain his innocence.

Auerbach has previously revealed that two Thai masseuses were booked – one for Lehrmann and one for himself. Lehrmann provided a denial about this to News Corp saying, “The story is untrue and rather bizarre,” and that it was being peddled by a “disgruntled ex-Spotlight producer”.

Lehrmann claimed that, while he was in Sydney “meeting with senior Network Seven bosses about the potential for a Spotlight story”, he stayed at accommodation in the city.

However, his account is disputed by the third man who recalled being in Auerbach’s apartment when Auerbach and Lehrmann were “negotiating how to pay” the two women, who arrived with a portable EFTPOS machine.

He recollected that Auerbach and Lehrmann had tried to put the payments on one of their personal credit cards but the payment was declined. Auerbach then decided to use the Seven corporate card.

According to receipts contained in Auerbach’s affidavits, which have been tendered in the Federal Court, thousands of dollars for the masseuses were charged to a Burwood company, Sensai Thai Massage.

Auerbach has threatened defamation proceedings against Lehrmann for suggesting Auerbach was lying about Lehrmann’s participation in the night in question.

In a concerns notice sent to Lehrmann last week, Auerbach’s solicitor, Rebekah Giles, said Lehrmann’s public denials conveyed a defamatory imputation that “Taylor Auerbach lied to the press about Bruce Lehrmann being bought a massage by a Seven Network employee”.

“We are instructed these comments are false,” Giles said.

On Tuesday night, using affidavits provided by Auerbach, Network Ten succeeded in its urgent application to call fresh evidence about Lehrmann’s dealings with Seven as part of its defence to the former federal Liberal staffer’s multimillion-dollar defamation case over Lisa Wilkinson’s interview with Higgins aired on The Project on February 15, 2021.

The name of the massage company allegedly used by Auerbach and Lehrmann.

While he was not named, Lehrmann claims the Higgins interview on The Project defamed him by suggesting he was guilty of raping her in Parliament House in March 2019.

Instead of handing down his judgment in the case on Thursday, as had been scheduled, Justice Michael Lee will now listen to Auerbach give evidence in the Federal Court in Sydney at 2.15 pm.

The judge has indicated he hopes to deliver his judgment in the defamation trial next week.

Comment was sought from Lehrmann.

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