What we heard today
Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers made an application to subpoena Sky News on Tuesday morning over a “secret” recording of Brittany Higgins’s lawyer speaking to Higgins’s fiance, David Sharaz, at a Sydney bar.
Read more on that here:
The court also heard two recordings secretly made by Higgins, and evidence from The Project producer Angus Llewellyn.
Here’s what we heard this afternoon:
Higgins was heard in one of the secret recordings telling Senator Michaelia Cash’s aide Daniel Try that she was having “random panic attacks” after the alleged rape. She also asks if he can find out the name of a journalist who asked a question about the alleged assault.
In another secret recording with Cash and Try, Higgins breaks down in tears, saying she felt everyone in the party had moved on, and she was the only one “keeping a secret and it was exhausting”. She says if it was a stranger she would go to the police, but she felt she couldn’t “because of all the weird party stuff”.
In another recording, Cash tells Higgins she can have another role in Brisbane doing social media, but Higgins replies she just wants to “end my relationship with Parliament House pretty much at this point”.
Lisa Wilkinson’s lawyer Sue Chrysanthou says it is “absolutely clear” from the recording Try knew about the alleged assault.
To read everything we heard this morning, click here.
The trial will continue tomorrow.
Updated
Judge: ‘the more this case goes on the more I think I’m going to be engaged in it in any event right up till Father Christmas comes’
Justice Lee was hearing the separate issue of Lisa Wilkinson’s claim for the Ten Network to pay her legal costs when he remarked on the sprawling nature of the defamation case.
“The more this case goes on the more I think I’m going to be engaged in it in any event right up till Father Christmas comes,” Lee said.
Today saw the case take a new direction when it admitted into evidence a secret audio recording of Higgins’ lawyer talking to Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz.
Counsel for Ten and Wilkinson agreed to defer the case until mid-February 2024.
The court has adjourned until Wednesday morning when Llewellyn will return to the witness box to complete his cross-examination.
