Lisa Wilkinson launches fresh salvo in fight with Bruce Lehrmann

But Wilkinson’s barristers, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, and Barry Dean, said in written submissions that the judge’s findings could not have been a surprise because Wilkinson’s defence during the trial alleged Lehrmann either knew Higgins did not consent or was “reckless as to whether Higgins consented”.

“Given his emphatic denials of sexual intercourse or any similar intimate interaction whatsoever, there was no lack of fairness in not putting to Mr Lehrmann that he was reckless,” the submissions said.

They said Lehrmann’s lawyers took a different approach during the trial, but his new lawyer “now apparently [takes] the view that it was unfair … not [to] have asked him specific questions about consent, namely recklessness, presumably something like ‘you didn’t care if she was consenting one or way the other, did you?’ ”

“It is difficult to see what difference putting those propositions would have made or how Mr Lehrmann has been denied natural justice or procedural fairness by the fact that this line of questioning was not pursued.”

During the trial in 2023, Ten’s barrister, Dr Matt Collins, KC, put to Lehrmann during cross-examination that he had sex with Higgins on the couch in Reynolds’ office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.

Loading

“I did not,” Lehrmann replied.

Lehrmann said later in court that he “didn’t get consent because I didn’t have sexual intercourse with her”.

Lehrmann replied, “No, Dr Collins”, when it was put to him that he was aware Higgins was either passed out or semiconscious.

In a separate case, a former producer on Seven’s Spotlight program, Taylor Auerbach, is suing the network in the Federal Court over comments it made before Auerbach’s surprise appearance as a witness in the Lehrmann defamation case.

Documents released by the court on Tuesday reveal Auerbach will claim Seven breached a non-disparagement clause in a settlement deed and defamed him by suggesting he was disciplined over spending on a corporate credit card.

Auerbach gave evidence in the defamation trial that in November 2022 he put $10,000 in expenses associated with two masseuses for himself and Lehrmann on a corporate credit card.

At the time, Seven was working to secure an exclusive interview deal with Lehrmann.

Auerbach said in his lawsuit that he was “never disciplined over the incident” and “Seven never ‘insisted’ the monies be repaid in line with its expense policy”, as the network claimed in comments to News Corp and the ABC.

Loading

“To the contrary, Seven dissuaded Auerbach from doing so and instead instructed him to attempt to track down the massage service provider, withdraw cash from a bank branch, and offer the individual a ‘bonus’ in return for reversing the credit card charges and wiping them from the Seven accounting records,” his statement of claim said.

“Less than a month later, Auerbach was sent to Tasmania to play golf with Bruce Lehrmann and instructed to use the same credit card to purchase golf equipment for Mr Lehrmann and the expensive course fees at championship course Barnbougle.”

Seven has yet to file a defence. Auerbach is seeking a declaration that the network breached the non-disparagement clause, damages, and an order restraining future publication of similar comments.