Defamation

A Queensland MP known to Brittany Higgins has told a court that the former Liberal staffer told him that a  colleague had raped her, just days after she was allegedly assaulted by Bruce Lehrmann.

Network Ten journalist Lisa Wilkinson has been accused of bias towards former defence minister Linda Reynolds because of a message she sent hours before an episode of The Project aired in which Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped in Parliament House, in which she said the senator was “lying through her teeth”.

Bruce Lehrmann will not call Brittany Higgins back to the witness box in his defamation trial against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilksinon to give evidence on a secret recording of a conversation between her fiancé and solicitor.

A judge overseeing the trial in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson has asked to see the legal advice Wilkinson received before giving her Logies acceptance speech last year, saying it was “inconceivable” any lawyer would have approved it.

The Project producer Angus Llewellyn has testified that Bruce Lehrmann was given a reasonable chance to respond to rape allegations made by Brittany Higgins, and dismissed as “ridiculous” the suggestion that he indicated to Higgins and her partner David Sharaz that he was going to “do a number” on Lehrmann. 

The judge overseeing the trial in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten intervened on Wednesday during cross-examination of The Project producer Angus Llewellyn, apparently dissatisfied with Llewellyn’s response when asked whether he believed Brittany Higgins’ partner David Sharaz had a “political agenda”.

A court has heard a secretly recorded conversation between Brittany Higgins and her former boss, Senator Michaelia Cash, which presenter Lisa Wilkinson says is consistent with Higgins’ account that she told Cash in October 2019 about her alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann, a claim that Cash has denied.

The judge overseeing the trial in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten has granted Lehrmann’s bid to subpoena Sky News Australia for an audio recording said to capture a conversation between Brittany Higgins’ fiancé and her solicitor.

Billionaire Kerry Stokes and Nine-owned Fairfax are fighting about how to calculate costs for Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case after the Seven West Media chair agreed to foot the legal bill on an indemnity basis.

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins told a colleague she “could not have consented” to a sexual encounter with Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House, a court has heard.