What we heard today
This afternoon we heard from lip-reader Tim Reedy, who travelled from the UK.
Bruce Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Higgins broadcast on The Project and online which did not name him but alleged she had been raped by a Liberal staffer in March 2019.
Lehrmann has denied raping Brittany Higgins and pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the second did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.
Here’s what we heard this afternoon:
Reedy – who used the assistance of a “lip-speaker” to help him answer questions in court – said he spent three days studying CCTV footage from the night of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape. Reedy said the difference between forensic lip-reading and real time lip-reading is that when he is studying a video he has the liberty of going back and watching it again.
Reedy said he believed CCTV footage showed Higgins being “plied with alcohol” he saw a segment of the footage in which Lehrmann lined up drinks for her on the corner of the table. The court also heard that Reedy’s transcript of the CCTV had Lehrmann saying “drink that all now” and Higgins saying “I don’t want to”.
Justice Lee ruled the lip-reading evidence was admissible, although it is “not an exact science”.
Justice Lee also said “disgraceful” things have been published about Lehrmann, Fiona Brown and Higgins, and said he planned to issue contempt of court orders against those responsible.
To read more about what we heard this morning, click here.
Court will resume on Thursday when Justice Lee is set to start hearing closing submissions.
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Justice Lee says ‘disgraceful’ things have been published about Lehrmann, Higgins and Brown
The court has adjourned until 10.15am on Thursday when Justice Lee will hear closing submissions from the parties: the applicant on Thursday and the defence on Friday.
Before rising, Justice Lee said the principal witnesses Brittany Higgins, Bruce Lehrmann and Fiona Brown have been subjected to scurrilous and disgraceful abuse on social media and he is planning to issue contempt orders against those responsible.
Lee said he warned at the beginning of the trial there would be consequences.
“I made it clear that I wouldn’t tolerate abuse of witnesses for the purposes of giving evidence, and I said that the law of contempt is an appropriate remedial response in the event that there has been,” he said.
“I regret to say when it comes to all the principal witnesses being Mr Lehrmann, Ms Higgins and Ms Brown, some of the things that have been published on any view of it are disgraceful. And I do propose at the end of this process to consider – and also threats against the court I might say – to prepare a schedule of the persons to whom [contempt] orders will be served.”
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