Good morning! Here are the key events from the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case:
3m ago: Auerbach claims invoices produced were for ‘Lehrmann’s expenditure on cocaine and prostitutes’
Seven Network has produced to the court an invoice from 14 January 2023 from Bruce Lehrmann for a hire care and a George Street bar. Another item was a $750 charge for “pre-production expenses”. In the absence of the witness, Matt Collins, for Ten, said the invoice suggests “pre-production” expenses was code for cocaine. Auerbach returned to the witness box and said the expression pre-production expenses was for “Mr Lehrmann’s expenditure on cocaine and prostitutes”. “He indicated to me he needed to replenish his bank account after the bender,” Auerbach said. Richardson has objected that the invoice for pre-production expenses is not the same as “per diems” evidence he gave yesterday. Lee allowed the evidence and the invoice was tendered. Auerbach’s evidence is now complete and he has left the witness box.
14m ago: Lehrmann talked about receiving $200,000 for Spotlight interview, court hears
Auerbach has told the court he and Lehrmann’s media adviser John McGowan had a discussion in a Canberra cafe about how much the former Liberal staffer would expect to be paid. “Mr McGowan has a previous friendship with somebody who had been on Channel Seven program who had received $150,000,” he said. “So he said I know what she got. So we’ll start from there and we sort of talked about vaguely $200,000.” The former Spotlight producer said the two men discussed how they might pay Lehrmann indirectly through a trust. “We talked about the fact that Mr Lehrmann had many legal fees and needed to be compensated and we started talking about how that payment might work. Rather than giving the money to Mr Lehrmann, it might go into a trust account. For example, in Mr McGowan’s name, and the figures discussed.”
21m ago: Judge makes lighthearted remark about struggling to read evidence
A moment of relief in the courtroom, as the judge makes a lighthearted remark about struggling to read some evidence – a screenshot of text messages between Auerbach and Steve Jackson allegedly relating to paying cash to Thai masseuses, so that the charges for their services on the Channel Seven credit card could be reversed.
For more details, you can visit the original article from The Guardian.