Network Ten has revealed it will seek to prove Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins, while also shining a light on the steps it took to contact him before airing the sexual assault claims.
An email containing 16 questions was reproduced in a defence the television station filed on Tuesday in the Federal Court, where Mr Lehrmann is suing the network for defamation.
"Did you rape Brittany Higgins as alleged?" The Project producer Angus Llewellyn asked Mr Lehrmann in the email, which, like phone calls and text messages, went unanswered.
Mr Lehrmann, who has always denied raping Ms Higgins at Parliament House when the pair worked for the Liberal Party in March 2019, faced a criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
He pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent, which was dropped late last year after his trial had to be aborted as a result of juror misconduct.
Mr Lehrmann has since launched civil action against Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson over the network's initial coverage of the allegations made public by Ms Higgins in February 2021.
He alleges Ms Wilkinson was "recklessly indifferent to the truth" while seeking to exploit false rape claims for her own gain.
Mr Lehrmann further claims the interview Ms Wilkinson conducted with Ms Higgins was presented in an "over-sensationalised" way on The Project, with intent to "injure" him.
Ms Wilkinson blasted the allegation of reckless indifference in a defence filed last month, calling it "baseless" and "unjustified".
Her defence indicated she would argue the court should throw out Mr Lehrmann's lawsuit because he failed to file it within a year of the allegedly defamatory interview being published.
If the court grants an extension of the 12-month time limit to file a defamation claim, the defences of both Ms Wilkinson and Ten show they will try to prove the alleged rape occurred.
Ten's legal team, led by barrister Matt Collins KC, claims Mr Lehrmann was "sexually attracted" to Ms Higgins and that he acted on this by raping her and then lying about it.
The network's defence also responds to Mr Lehrmann's assertion that he was not given a reasonable opportunity to answer Ms Higgins' allegations before they were aired publicly.
It details Mr Llewellyn's efforts to contact him on multiple occasions, starting on February 12, 2021, three days before the interview went to air.
"I'm producing a story for Network Ten's The Project," an email sent on February 12 begins.
"The Project has been informed of an alleged rape of Brittany Higgins perpetrated by you within a minister's office in Australian Parliament House on the evening of 22 March 2019/morning of 23rd March 2019."
Mr Llewellyn goes on to ask Mr Lehrmann to answer 16 "specific queries" by no later than 10am on February 15.
"Lehrmann did not respond to any of Ten's attempts to contact him," Ten's defence states.
"Had Lehrmann responded to Ten's attempts to contact him, Ten would have included Lehrmann's side of the story, by including his response or the substance of his response, in the matters complained of.
"Depending on the nature of any response from Lehrmann, Ten may have considered offering him the opportunity to participate in an on-camera interview which could have been included in the matters complained of or considered delaying publication of the matters complained of to give him an opportunity to respond."
Justice Michael Lee, who is presiding over the case against Ten and Ms Wilkinson, who has hired her own legal team, is set to hold an interlocutory hearing in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Mr Lehrmann is also suing News Life Media, the publisher of news.com.au, and the website's political editor, Samantha Maiden, for defamation in separate proceedings.
Those parties are yet to file defences.
