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Bruce Lehrmann has denied telling colleagues that he thought Brittany Higgins was “good looking” just weeks before she alleged he sexually assaulted her at Parliament House, a court has heard.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over their reporting of allegations made by Ms Higgins, in a The Project interview, that she was raped inside Parliament House in March, 2019.
The court heard that Mr Lehrmann claimed the program, which was first aired on February 15, 2021, painted him as a “predator”, left him “severely isolated” and he was abandoned by friends and colleagues.
During an at-times tense cross examination by Ten’s barrister Dr Matt Collins KC on Thursday, Mr Lehrmann denied telling a colleague that he told them that he thought Ms Higgins was “good looking” while at a Canberra pub in March 2019.
“I don’t recall this conversation,” Mr Lehrmann said.
Dr Collins asked whether he told a female colleague: “Message her and see if she’s free to come to the pub.”
“I don’t recall that happening,” Mr Lehrmann said.
The court was played CCTV of the pair proceeding through the halls of parliament to Senator Linda Reynolds’ office on the night of the alleged incident.
Once inside, he insisted he went to the left and Ms Higgins went to the right, in the direction of the personal suites of the minister and her chief of staff.
He said he spent 30 to 40 minutes at his desk writing ministerial notes while they were “fresh” in his mind.
“Did you sexually assault Brittany Higgins in that office on that evening,” his solicitor Steve Whybrow asked.
“Absolutely not,” he said.
He said he did not see her after she entered the office, describing the evening as “innocuous.”
Asked if he saw Ms Higgins after they went their separate ways as they entered Senator Reynolds’ office, he said: “I did not.”
He said he then exited out the back and got an Uber home.
Mr Lehrmann stood trial in the ACT Supreme Court last year after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting Ms Higgins, but the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.
The charges were subsequently dropped, Mr Lehrmann has continued to deny the allegations and no adverse findings have been made against him.
The trial continues on Friday.
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