Bruce Lehrmann court decision LIVE: Bombshell photo rocks court hearing as Lehrmann is accused of ‘outrageous contempt of court’

Network Ten’s lawyer, Matthew Collins KC, has accused Bruce Lehrmann of committing “outrageous contempt of court”.

She accused Mr Lehrmann of handing over around 2,300 pages of private texts from Brittany Higgins to Channel Seven, ahead of her two Spotlight interviews which aired in June last year.

Those text messages were between Higgins and her ex-boyfriend, Ben Dillaway.

Dr. Collins accused Mr. Lehrmann of releasing those texts to the network to embarrass Ms. Higgins and influence the defamation trial.

He told the court that Auerbach accused Lehrmann of using Channel Seven’s photocopier to copy documents in his possession.

Wilkinson’s lawyer, Ms Chrysanthou, told the court that Channel Seven’s agreement with Mr Lehramnn went beyond covering his rent.

The network paid about $100,000 to rent Lehrmann for a year in exchange for exclusive interviews.

She said: “In addition to the year’s rent, it appears that Network Seven paid additional months’ rent on behalf of Mr Auerbach.”

Chrysanthou also said Auerbach had provided photographs of a laptop that showed text messages between Wilkinson’s husband, Peter FitzSimons, and Higgins.

FizSimons negotiated Higgins’ $325,000 book deal with Penguin Random House in 2021.

“In the reflection you can see (Spotlight producer) Mark Llewellyn,” he said.

“Those photographs were taken in an apartment that Mr. Lehrmann rented to live in… in the name of Mr. Auerbach.”

Network Seven was subpoenaed to produce material relating to the settlement with Mr Lehrmann before last year’s defamation case.

On Tuesday, Chrysanthou suggested that some of the original material may have been destroyed.