Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann arrived at his defamation trial alone, and took a seat in the front row behind his lawyers. He wore a fresh haircut and a sharp suit. The courtroom filled up, leaving one spare seat on either side of him.
It was the first day of the proceedings Lehrmann had brought against Network Ten and its one-time star journalist Lisa Wilkinson, who he claimed had defamed him by making him out to be a rapist in an interview with his former colleague Brittany Higgins, and two other broadcasts.
Lisa Wilkinson and lawyers arrive at court on Wednesday.Credit: Louise Kennerley
And then, 10 minutes before proceedings were due to begin, Wilkinson floated through the doors in a powder pink suit, and the only free spaces in the front row were on either side of the man who was suing her. A frantic rearrangement ensued.
Some people leapfrogged seats to make way for Wilkinson, giving way to an invidious new scenario in which she would be required to sit next to the men’s rights activist Bettina Arndt.
Lehrmann, observing the shuffle, turned away to stifle a chuckle. But Arndt was gracious enough to move down the aisle, leaving a vacant seat at the end of the row for Wilkinson to light upon at the precise moment she turned from conferring with her lawyers, and she sank into it as naturally as a queen assumes her throne.
The trial was ready to begin, and one of most sprawling and damaging political sagas in modern Australian history would once again be parsed for truth and lies. After one criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and another abandoned due to concern for Higgins’s mental health, it is up to Federal Court Justice Michael Lee to decide whether, on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann raped Higgins.
Bruce Lehrmann is questioned by journalists outside court on Wednesday morning.Credit: Louise Kennerley
“Shortly after 1.45am on Saturday 23rd of March, 2019, a 23-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman entered the suite of offices for the minister of defence industry,” Lehrmann’s barrister Matthew Richardson, SC, began.
“The security guard escorting them from the Parliament House entrance closed the doors behind them. The man emerged about 45 minutes later.”
Richardson’s opening remarks were at once specific to the Lehrmann and Higgins saga, general to the polarised state of the public discourse and a comment on the debasement of objectivity.
“For some people, the guilt of our client, Mr Lehrmann, is an article of faith,” Richardson said.
“They believe the complainant’s account of events. They have always believed the complainant’s account of events; they will always believe it, no matter the evidence stacking up on the other side of the ledger.
“To let go of their beliefs, even to acknowledge the situation is grey, would be too painful and perhaps, given the stance they have taken, too humiliating. Conversely, on the other side, there is undoubtedly a group of people who have always believed my client’s denial of the allegation and likely also remain steadfastly committed to that position.”
Lehrmann watched the proceedings steadily.
When Richardson flagged that Lehrmann was the next witness, he sprang to his feet before he was called, and then waited on the edge of his seat while the judge and lawyers discussed his affidavit. When he began answering questions, he spoke clearly and added details.
“Most certainly,” he said, instead of “yes”. At one point he spoke over the top of his lawyer.
He told the court that he had been booted out of social media groups once the interview with Higgins was aired on The Project. In one social media group – for Nationals members and staffers – every member left the group, and he was the only person remaining.
“People were looking me up, posting things on Twitter, it was quite disgusting,” he said of the period after the interview with Higgins was broadcast.
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2023-11-22 06:36:12Z
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