A public servant who was with Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins on the night of her alleged rape has told the federal court the pair had some close physical contact before they attended parliament house. Mr Lehrmann is suing network ten and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation, over an interview with Ms Higgins in which she detailed her allegation.
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00:00 Lauren Gain worked in the Department of Defence at the time of Ms Higgins' alleged assault
00:08 and she was out with Ms Higgins, Mr Learman and another political staffer at a nightclub
00:14 in central Canberra on the night in question, immediately before Bruce Learman and Brittany
00:21 Higgins then attended Parliament House in the early hours of that Saturday morning.
00:27 Ms Gain told the court today that when the group was at the nightclub she observed Mr
00:33 Learman and Ms Higgins touching each other's thighs, sitting quite close to one another
00:39 and also sharing a kiss.
00:42 Mr Learman had previously given evidence that while he was verbally flirtatious to Ms Higgins
00:48 there was no physical contact beyond that between the pair and he wasn't physically
00:55 flirtatious.
00:56 So that was Ms Gain's evidence today of her observations on the night and when it was
01:03 put to her by Mr Learman's legal team that that recollection was inaccurate she rejected
01:08 that and said it was clearly a memory that she had.
01:12 Ms Gain also testified to the Federal Court today about Ms Higgins' level of intoxication
01:19 on that night.
01:22 She told the court that indeed in her view she was intoxicated and that she had had some
01:27 previous social functions with Ms Higgins and used that as a reference point for judging
01:32 that she was affected by alcohol.
01:35 She also told the court that Ms Higgins did fall over at one point while the group was
01:41 at that nightclub and testified that that had occurred upon her returning to the lounge
01:48 area where they were seated.
01:50 Bruce Learman of course denies any wrongdoing and there were no findings out of an ACT Supreme
01:58 Court criminal trial last year which was ultimately aborted due to a juror's misconduct.
02:04 And what was the discussion in court about whether Mr Learman was identified in the program?
02:10 A number of witnesses have given their accounts of whether they suspected who the identity
02:17 of the unnamed man who was the subject of these allegations was.
02:23 Mr Learman has claimed that he was identifiable in the program through other details that
02:31 were included.
02:32 And several of the witnesses today told the court that they did believe to some degree
02:38 that the person who was referred to in both the Network 10 report and an article on news.com.au
02:46 was indeed Mr Learman, a former media adviser to Peter Dutton when he was the Home Affairs
02:52 Minister, Austin Wienke.
02:54 He agreed with a proposition from Mr Learman's legal team that his identity was an open secret
03:00 among staffers at Parliament House.
03:04 Although the court also heard from a former policy adviser to Linda Reynolds for whom
03:09 both Bruce Learman and Brittany Higgins worked.
03:13 And that man was Jesse Watton who told the court he had some brief concern that people
03:19 may suspect he was the subject of the allegations Brittany Higgins was making.
03:25 And the reason this is important is because Channel 10's first line of defence in a way
03:31 is that it did not identify Mr Learman in its broadcast.
03:36 And so that is a hurdle Mr Learman and his legal team need to clear before the judge
03:42 can then consider whether the imputations in the program were true or not or were indeed,
03:51 as Mr Learman claims, defamatory.
03:53 And where does the hearing go from here?
03:57 Well it will resume tomorrow and continue hearing from these witnesses that the Network
04:02 10 are calling in an effort to try and prove the substantial truth of its case.
04:08 We expect tomorrow to hear from the Parliament House security guards who were on duty on
04:14 the night in question and who witnessed Mr Learman and Ms Higgins' arrival.
04:20 We've already heard from Nicola Anderson in the criminal trial and also speaking to Four
04:27 Corners when the allegations first emerged in 2021.
04:32 We also expect to hear from Ben Dilloway who was a close friend of Brittany Higgins and
04:39 to whom she frequently disclosed some level of detail about her allegations after the
04:46 alleged assault had occurred and to whom she was communicating with quite often in the
04:53 aftermath.
04:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]