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Network Ten has argued that it would be inappropriate for the judge in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case to make any findings about whether Brittany Higgins lied to secure her $2.4 million taxpayer-funded payout.
Justice Michael Lee this week emailed the parties involved after receiving a submission from Network Ten in which he argued that allegations that Ms Higgins ‘perpetrated a fraud on the Commonwealth’ were not relevant to the case.
Lawyers for Mr Lehrmann had previously argued that Ms Higgins made 11 statements about her alleged rape in her settlement, which they argued were either false or contradicted by evidence she gave in the defamation case.
According to newly released court documents, Network Ten argued that “it would be inappropriate for this court to make any finding as to the characterization of Ms Higgins’ conduct as alleged by Mr Lehrmann”.
“Essentially, she was prepared to tell lies, including elaborate lies, as to matters which she qualified to be true and correct with the intention of inducing the Commonwealth of Australia to enter into the deed which provided for the payment of a life which changed settlement sum.’
Brittany Higgins will not be recalled to testify in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial over whether she lied to secure a $2.4 million government payout.
Network Ten claimed in its submission that Ms Higgins had addressed the allegations made by Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers.
“Ms Higgins’ position in relation to the alleged discrepancies was, with one exception, sufficiently clear from the evidence she gave in cross-examination.”
In his email, Justice Lee said Network Ten appeared to suggest that it would be against procedural fairness to make a decision on the charges to establish Ms Higgins’ ‘general creditworthiness’.
He said it was unnecessary to recall Ms Higgins to give further evidence about the discrepancies, but also warned that nothing in his email indicated “a view, one way or the other, as to the underlying value of any credit submission based on the Commonwealth Deed”.
Ms Higgins was paid $2.445m by the government in the settlement after a single day of mediation.
The inconsistencies include Mr Lehrmann getting into Ms Higgins’ taxi on the night of the alleged rape without her consent. She testified that she had accepted.
They also include him telling the cab to stop at Parliament House without getting her consent, but she later gave evidence that she ‘just went along with it’.
Lawyers for Mr Lehrmann argued there were 11 inconsistencies between what Ms Higgins said to secure her payout and the evidence she gave in the case
Also that he asked her to get out of the cab when she testified ‘I don’t know why but when it stopped I got out too’.
And that they didn’t talk the following Monday when they actually exchanged emails and went for coffee.
The settlement also said Ms Higgins was barred from attending election campaign events with her then boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, but she had been photographed sitting next to her.
In cross-examination, Ms Higgins said when she arrived at the event she “accidentally” sat next to Senator Reynolds because it was one of the only seats left.