{"id":182511,"date":"2023-12-18T22:20:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T22:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/?p=182511"},"modified":"2023-12-18T22:20:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T22:20:36","slug":"former-chief-of-staff-returns-to-court-in-lehrmann-defamation-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/world-news\/former-chief-of-staff-returns-to-court-in-lehrmann-defamation-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Former chief of staff returns to court in Lehrmann defamation case"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Save articles for later<\/h3>\n<p>Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Watch the hearing live here from noon (AEDT)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The former chief of staff to then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds returns to the Federal Court witness box on Tuesday after giving evidence in Bruce Lehrmann\u2019s defamation case that it had entered her mind at one stage that Brittany Higgins may have been sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n<p>Fiona Brown, who was chief of staff to the Liberal senator in March 2019, started giving evidence in Sydney on Monday in Lehrmann\u2019s defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.125%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_1%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/7bb034d43e271a623f4eac22b9d866831c7afbf5\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Bruce Lehrmann outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday.<\/span><cite class=\"ojLwA\"><span>Credit: <\/span>Flavio Brancaleone<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson over an interview with Higgins, broadcast on <i>The Project <\/i>on February 15, 2021, that he alleges defames him by suggesting he is guilty of raping Higgins in Reynolds\u2019 office in Parliament House on March 23, 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Both Higgins and Lehrmann worked as advisers to Reynolds in 2019. Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and has told the Federal Court there was no sexual contact between the pair at all.<br \/><b><\/b><\/p>\n<h3><b>\u2018Antenna went up\u2019<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>On Monday, Brown gave evidence that her \u201cantenna went up\u201d after Lehrmann told her at a meeting on March 26, 2019, he came back to Parliament House in the early hours of Saturday, March 23 to drink whisky.<\/p>\n<p>She had been told that Higgins had been found naked that morning in the minister\u2019s office, Brown told the court.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if she had suspected Lehrmann and Higgins had had sex, Brown said she thought it was possible. She agreed under cross-examination by Wilkinson\u2019s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, that it had entered her mind that Higgins may have been sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n<p>Brown told the court she couldn\u2019t rule it in and couldn\u2019t rule it out.<\/p>\n<p>She denied that Higgins told her during a meeting on March 26, after her meeting with Lehrmann, that she had woken up early on March 23 in Reynolds\u2019 office and Lehrmann had been \u201con top of me\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Brown said Higgins had told her at a meeting two days later: \u201cI remember him being on top of me.\u201d However, Brown said that Higgins had not said it was something she didn\u2019t want.<\/p>\n<p>Brown is expected to conclude her evidence on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<h3>Expert lip-reader<\/h3>\n<p>Ten has flown the UK-based lip-reader Tim Reedy to Sydney to give evidence as part of its defence, and he will be cross-examined on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Court Justice Michael Lee ruled this month that Ten could tender a report in which Reedy expresses an opinion on words spoken by Lehrmann and Higgins at The Dock on March 22, 2019. Reedy\u2019s opinion is based on an analysis of CCTV footage from The Dock.<\/p>\n<p>The judge made clear that his ruling allowing the report to be admitted in evidence was not an indication of the weight he would ultimately place on the opinions expressed in it.<\/p>\n<h3>Lehrmann not named<\/h3>\n<p>Lehrmann was not named in Ten\u2019s interview and a preliminary issue in the case is whether he was identified because of the details provided in the broadcast, including the fact that the alleged perpetrator had worked in Reynolds\u2019 office.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.188%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_194%2C$y_95\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/19a93f001fa1ae5b950aeae9f1e10df05b878887\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Brittany Higgins leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on December 1.<\/span><cite class=\"ojLwA\"><span>Credit: <\/span>James Brickwood<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>If the court finds Lehrmann was identified in the interview, Ten and Wilkinson are seeking to rely on defences of truth and qualified privilege. Qualified privilege is a defence relating to publications of public interest, which requires a media outlet to show it has acted reasonably.<\/p>\n<h3>Sexual assault charge dropped<\/h3>\n<p>Lehrmann\u2019s ACT Supreme Court trial for sexual assault was aborted last year due to juror misconduct. The charge against Lehrmann was later dropped altogether owing to concerns about Higgins\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n<p><i><b>Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<h2>Most Viewed in National<\/h2>\n<h3>From our partners<\/h3>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/national\/nsw\/former-chief-of-staff-returns-to-court-in-lehrmann-defamation-case-20231219-p5esdb.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Watch the hearing live here from noon (AEDT) The former chief of staff [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former chief of staff returns to court in Lehrmann defamation case - Hot World Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/world-news\/former-chief-of-staff-returns-to-court-in-lehrmann-defamation-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former chief of staff returns to court in Lehrmann defamation case - Hot World Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. 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