Bruce Lehrmann has explained the multiple lies he told to excuse an after hours Parliament House visit on the night Brittany Higgins claims he raped her.
He also admitted to the Federal Court he mistakenly told ACT Policing there was no alcohol kept in his office.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a 2021 story on The Project which he claims identified him as the man who allegedly sexually assaulted Ms Higgins two years earlier.
The defamation trial is expected to run until mid-December, with counsel for Ms Wilkinson and Ten, in part, aiming to prove the rape allegation is "substantially true".
Lies explained
The court heard Mr Lehrmann had given three different reasons for being at Parliament House on the night in question.
Barrister Steven Whybrow SC, representing Mr Lehrmann, asked the man why he had lied to security through an intercom by telling them he needed to pick up documents, rather than his house keys.
"I thought that security would have said 'bugger off and come back next week'. And I needed to get home," Mr Lehrmann, who had forgotten his pass, said.
"Ordinarily you would just swipe to get through that. I thought that that would be a sufficient excuse to get through that first layer [of security] there."
The court watched CCTV of the pair inside Parliament House, right up until they entered Senator Linda Reynold's office.
Mr Lehrmann claims he told Ms Higgins: "I've got to get what I need and I'll head off."
The court heard the man stayed in the office doing work for about 30-40 minutes, without interaction with Ms Higgins, before he "saw I had missed calls and got my keys and went out the back door".
Mr Lehrmann explained another lie he had told Senator Reynold's chief of staff, Fiona Brown, about why he had attended the parliamentary office after hours.
"She identified that after hours access was a breach of the ministerial code of conduct," Mr Lehrmann said.
The man said he told the senior staffer he came back to have a drink, and that he felt "incredibly nervous" during their conversation.
"Her tone was tense ... I was of the mindset that if I was to tell her I was working on the question time briefs she could have taken that to be an even greater security breach," he said.
Cross-examination
Mr Lehrmann was subject to cross-examination on Thursday afternoon for the first time after he did not enter the witness box in his criminal trial.
Matthew Collins KC, representing Ten, grilled Mr Lehrmann about his knowledge of having alcohol available at Parliament House.
"I didn't have any alcohol in my office," Mr Lehrmann told police investigators in 2021 in a record of interview played for the court.
"I was mistaken," he said on Thursday.
"At the time of giving that interview, that's the best I could recall."
Dr Collins pressed Mr Lehrmann and said: "You allowed that statement to go uncorrected throughout the entirety of your criminal trial."
"Evidently I have, yes," Mr Lehrmann responded.
The court was shown a video filmed by the man of three whisky and one gin bottle in the office.
Dr Collins also questioned the man about a March 2019 afternoon at the Kingston Hotel, when Mr Lehrmann and three others, including Ms Higgins, were drinking.
Mr Lehrmann said on that afternoon, a few weeks before the alleged rape, he did not "specifically" know who the woman was.
Dr Collins suggested Mr Lehrmann did know her and he told others: "Brittany's good looking."
"I'm sorry, I just don't recall that," Mr Lehrmann said.
The man also could not recall telling Ms Higgins: "Why don't you stay for a drink, I haven't had the chance to chat with you."
Mr Lehrmann then denied "snatching" the woman's phone to prevent her from calling an Uber to leave the pub.
"I never took her phone, Dr Collins," he said.
Parliament House gossip
Before Mr Lehrmann sat in the witness box, a former government staffer said the unnamed accused rapist in media reporting "couldn't have been anyone else" but Mr Lehrmann
Kathleen Quinn said she recalled speaking to close to a dozen other government staffers about the allegations following the television program's airing.
"That Bruce was the person who had been identified in The Project broadcast and asking my opinion of his character, and whether or not I had ever experienced anything untoward from him," she said.
Questioned by Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Ms Wilkinson, Ms Quinn agreed she already formed the view the accused man was Mr Lehrmann by the time the Project aired following a news.com.au article.
The barrister put to Ms Quinn the only reason she believed the man in the television story was Mr Lehrmann was because she already had information about that fact.
The witness said it had "affirmed my view" because the story included new information such as the accused man being described as a "senior male advisor" who was working in Sydney at the time.
Life 'fractured' after allegations aired
"It completely destroyed me. It was the pinnacle that sort of, everything flowed from that," Mr Lehrmann said of the The Project story.
"Losing friends, finances, certain sections of my family haven't bothered to contact me. It's fractured large parts of my life."
Mr Lehrmann described being at Civic nightclub 88mph on the night in question for a "Friday night kick on", where he stayed for "a couple of rounds of drinks, some dancing, socialising" with Ms Higgins and two others.
"I was moderately intoxicated but functioning, coherent, aware of my surroundings," he said of his state when eventually leaving the nightclub in an Uber with Ms Higgins.
He described the woman's intoxication level on the "innocuous evening" as "mid-range"
"She was perfectly fine, functioning," he said.
Ms Higgins has previously described being "as drunk as I have ever been in my life" on the night, with CCTV showing her struggling to put on her shoes after passing through a security check.
'Weak' attempts at balanced broadcast
Mr Whybrow asked his client: "Did you sexually assault Brittany Higgins in that office?"
"Absolutely not," Mr Lehrmann responded, also describing a claim he tried to kiss Ms Higgins earlier that night as "completely false".
The former Liberal staffer was also asked about The Project's attempts to contact him for comment ahead of the story airing.
"They were incredibly weak, particularly given what was publicly known and available," he said.
In an affidavit published by the court, Mr Lehrman said it "staggers me" he was not contacted to comment on the "completely one sided" report.
"Had The Project made a reasonable attempt to contact me to put Ms Higgins' allegations to me for my response, I would have told them that the allegations were completely false, and grossly defamatory of me," he wrote.
The court heard Ten producer Angus Llewellyn used outdated phone numbers to try and call Mr Lehrmann three days before the program was set to be broadcast.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied raping Ms Higgins in 2019 in the office of the then defence industry minister, whom the pair worked for.
No findings have been made against him and his criminal trial was aborted last year due to juror misconduct.
The charge of sexual intercourse without consent levelled at Mr Lehrmann was later dropped over concerns for Ms Higgins' mental health.
He has already settled two other defamation disputes against News Corp and journalist Samantha Maiden, and the ABC.
The trial continues.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525.
