Key PointsEx-producer Taylor Auerbach has concluded testifying about Bruce Lehrmann in a defamation trial. Auerbach told the court Lehrmann said that he would only get access to confidential documents “when you sign me”.Seven has broadly denied allegations made by Auerbach in court.
This article contains references to sexual assault.
A former TV producer alleges Bruce Lehrmann promised access to documents when Seven signed him up for an exclusive interview on its Spotlight program.
Taylor Auerbach, who previously worked for the Seven Network, told a Federal Court defamation trial Lehrmann later leaked text messages extracted by police from alleged victim Brittany Higgins’ phone.
Lehrmann, a former political staffer, is suing over a 2021 interview, during which Higgins alleged she had been raped in Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann was not named in the interview, but he alleges he was identifiable and that the interview defamed him.
The messages came from a document compiled ahead of Lehrmann’s trial for allegedly raping Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, Auerbach told the court as he gave a second day of evidence in the Federal Court on Friday.
Lehrmann rejects that anything sexual happened between himself and Higgins. His 2022 criminal trial in the ACT was derailed due to juror misconduct, with prosecutors dropping the charges against him over fears for Higgins’ mental health.
Lehrmann has also denied providing Seven with any information for the Spotlight program, besides his interview.
Auerbach said he helped woo Lehrmann to take part in an exclusive interview for Seven’s Spotlight current affairs program.
In an affidavit, Auerbach said he was also sent messages between Higgins and journalist Peter Fitzsimmons, which made up part of the confidential police file.
Auerbach said he was sent photographs of a document on a laptop showing screenshots of text messages between the pair.
He claimed the photographs were taken by Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn, whose image he claimed to recognise reflected on the laptop screen.
Auerbach told the court that during a dinner at Sydney restaurant Spice Temple in March 2023, Llewellyn asked Lehrmann if he had documents for the criminal proceedings, to which he replied that he did.
Auerbach went on to allege that Lehrmann made copies of some of an estimated 500 pages of double-sided documents from the criminal case at Seven’s office at Eveleigh.
“I viewed some of the documents that were being copied and could see that they were exhibits from the applicant’s criminal proceedings,” Auerbach said in his affidavit.
“I saw, by way of example, Ms Higgins’ text messages.”
According to Auerbach, Lehrmann told him on several occasions that evening he would only get access to the documents “when you sign me”.
Seven has also broadly denied Auerbach’s allegations, labelling them “false and misleading” and adding that it did not reveal journalists’ sources.
When called as a witness on Thursday, Auerbach claimed he was tasked to babysit Lehrmann and court him for the interview.
He told the court that on one occasion in early 2023, he and Lehrmann had dined together at an upmarket Potts Point restaurant in Sydney’s east before going to a hotel room in the city.
“Channel Seven had put Bruce up at the Meriton for what he described as a ‘coming down to Sydney to unwind’ kind of trip,” Auerbach said.
When the pair returned to the hotel suite, Lehrmann allegedly produced a bag of cocaine, which he purchased during dinner, and began searching the internet for sex workers.
Auerbach said he was concerned by Lehrmann’s behaviour, texting his boss at the time Steve Jackson, that the prospective interviewee was “on the warpath”.
“I think I used the words, ‘this is f***ed’,” he told the court.
Justice Michael Lee had been poised to deliver his final judgment on the defamation action this week, but postponed giving his ruling, allowing Network Ten to reopen their case after Auerbach’s claims came to light.
If proven, Lehrmann’s alleged leaking of documents from the abandoned criminal trial would be in breach of what is known as the Harman undertaking, which prevents information not tendered in court being used for other purposes.
Matthew Richardson SC, representing Lehrmann, put to Auerbach that he was being untruthful in his account in order to damage his former employer and colleagues at Seven, which the former TV producer denied.
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