Bruce Lehrmann has spent five days giving evidence in a federal court defamation trial – the first time he has spoken in open court. The former Liberal party staffer finished giving evidence on Tuesday when his cross-examination wrapped up.
Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and its presenter Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Brittany Higgins broadcast on The Project and online which did not name him but alleged she had been raped by a Liberal staffer in 2019. Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case.
Lehrmann maintains his innocence. In a criminal trial last year he pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the second did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’s mental health.
Over the course of his evidence in the defamation case, Lehrmann admitted to six lies. Here they are:
Lies one and two: The letter
Where: In a letter to his boss, Linda Reynolds
When: Days after entering Parliament House with Higgins
Lehrmann admitted lying to the then defence minister Reynolds twice in his “show cause” letter. He told his then employer that he had “retreated to Queensland to see my mother who has been sick for a number of months now”, and could not talk in person. When asked what explanation he gave for the lie that he had left for Queensland, Lehrmann told the court there were “plans back then to” go to Queensland, and he could not “take himself back there to why”. In the letter, he also told the minister he refuted the claim he told security he needed access to the office for official purposes. In court, he admitted that wasn’t true.
Lie three: Drinking whisky
Where: In a conversation with Reynolds’s chief of staff, Fiona Brown
When: 26 March 2019
Lehrmann lied to Brown about why he entered Parliament House after hours on the night he is accused of having raped Higgins, a claim he denies. He told her he went to drink whisky but in court said the real reason was to collect his house keys and work on question time briefs – something he said he kept from Brown because he was aware accessing the documents may trigger a national security incident involving the AFP.
“Her tone was tense and I was of a mindset that if I was to tell her that I was working on the question time briefs she might have took that to be an even greater security breach, with flow-on effects,” he said.
Lie four: Lying about lying
Where: In an interview he gave to Seven’s Spotlight program
When: Aired in June 2023
Lehrmann also admitted lying about his reason for lying to Brown about why he entered Parliament House after hours. Lehrmann said in the interview with Seven that the reason he lied about going to Parliament House to drink whisky was because he was worried about his involvement in an earlier minor security incident.
But that security incident had not been raised with him and so could not have been a reason for the lie, said Channel Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC.
Lehrmann told the court he lied about lying on the program because it was “hastily arranged” and it was a “very nerve-racking time”.
Lie five: Picking up papers
Where: To Parliament House security
When: 23 March 2019, the night of the alleged sexual assault
Lehrmann admitted in court that he lied to security to get in to Parliament House when he told them that he needed to pick up documents for the defence minister. He told the court the real reason for visiting his workplace after hours was to collect his house keys and to work on question time briefs.
Lehrmann said he claimed he needed to pick up documents for Reynolds because if he told the truth about needing to pick up his house keys “that security would have said ‘bugger off and come back next week’. And I needed to get home.”
Lie six: No alcohol in the office
Where: To the Australian federal police
When: 19 April 2021
Lehrmann told the court he must have been “mistaken” when he told the Australian federal police in April that he did not have any alcohol in his office. Under cross-examination he conceded he had multiple bottles of whisky and gin in his office on the night of the alleged rape.
Lehrmann said: “Clearly, as we’ve seen, I’ve been mistaken there.”
• This article was amended on 29 November 2023 to clarify that the second lie Lehrmann told in the letter to Reynolds was saying he hadn’t told security he needed access to the office for official purposes.
