Bruce Lehrmann defamation case recap: New evidence to be heard as judge reopens case against Network Ten

To come back at 7.15am WST tomorrow for more cross examination.

Justice Lee comments that all the new material which has been tendered to the court leaves with a “more substantial” task than he had first anticipated.

He had flagged potential judgment delivery next week.

From those comments, that has to be somewhat in doubt.

Thanks for joining us.

Mr Auerbach is now being questioned about documents and material he says was provided to him by Mr Lehrmann.

They include a statement of facts, and a phone record which included Ms Higgins text messages.

Mr Richardson suggests it was not Mr Lehrmann who supplied them. He suggests that Mr Auerbach was drinking up to 20 standard drinks a day around the time, and any recollection from them would be unreliable.

Mr Auerbach said the only person who supplied him any material was Mr Lehrmann.

“I want to suggest to you that you don’t know how you came into possession of the Cellebrite report,” Mr Richardson said.

And he also suggests that he didn’t know when he got them.

Mr Auerbach disagrees.

Mr Richardson is now questioning Mr Auerbach about the Walkley nomination which the Spotlight programme initially received.

He suggests that Mr Auerbach was upset his name was not on the original entry.

He suggests Mr Auerbach threatened to object to that Walkley award entry.

And he suggests Mr Auerbach threatened to ask unflattering questions at the Seven AGM.

“I want to suggest to you Mister Auerbach that you are here today to do as much damage to your former employer and former colleagues as you possibly can - and you prepared to lie,” Mr Richardson said.

He disgarees with the final assertion.

Mr Auerbach is now being grilled about his billing Seven thousands of dollars of massages onto a company credit card in November 2022.

They were bills from Sensai Thai Massage in Sydney.

He is taken to a letter he wrote the day after that, where he said the expenses were “nothing to do with work”, that he was “disgusted” at what he had done, and he had been in a “drunken daze”.

Mr Auerbach tells the court that was the “worst morning of my life”.

Mr Lehrmann’s lawyer Matthew Richardson suggests he was “given another chance”.

Mr Auerbach said after that incident he was given a “promotion and a payrise.”

Mr Richardson now takes Mr Auerbach to his allegatoins in his affidavit that lawyers from Seven had suggested he destroy material connected with Mr Lehrmann.

And h says that is false - and that he is willing to say anything to discredit Seven.

“I want to suggest you are willing to say anything, no matter how awful, to damage people that are employed by Channel Seven,” Mr Richardson said.

Mr Auerbach disagrees.

But he does agree he harbours “hatred” towards his former boss on Spotlight, Steve Jackson.

Which is then illustrated by a video of him destroying Mr Jackson’s golf clubs, which Mr Auerbach posted on his social media channels.

Mr Auerbach is now taken to another instance, when Mr he and Lehrmann allegedly used Seven facilities to photocopy from a bundle of documents.

They obviously included text messages from Ms Higgins, he said.

His evidence in chief has now concluded.

Cross examination by Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers has now begun.

He has been immediately taken to his departure from his job at Sky earlier this year.

He is asked whether he was the person who disseminated a photograph of an undressed woman to journalists.

He agreed he was the sender - but denies he knew that act was illegal. And also denies that was the reason why he was sacked by Sky.

The context to that photograph is that also in it was his former boss Steve Jackson, who had just been employed as the new media manager for NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb.

Mr Auerbach says he has not been interview by the police about the sending of the picture.

Mr Auerbach now moves onto another meal had with Mr Lehrmann, after he had travelled again to Sydney.

He says after that meal, they returned to the Meriton hotel in the Sydney.

“Mr Lehrmann had, over dinner, purchased a bag of cocaine while we were dining at Franca, and when we got upstairs to the room he got out and started to put it on a plate,” Mr Auerbach said.

“He then then started talking to me about a prospective story ... and his desire to order prostitutes that night, and began googling series of websites to try and make that happen.

“During that conversation, he agreed to be in a Spotlight interview, as long as we didn’t ask him about what happened on the night. in Canberra.”

Mr Auerbach said that concerned him, as that would be the whole reason for the interview.

He then said he began texting his boss Steve Jackson, saying that Mr Lehrmann was “on the warpath” again and “that it was no anomaly”.

He also said he felt the situation was “f***ed”.

Mr Auerbach went on to describe how he then told Mr Lehrmann he “didn’t have any money”.

Mr Lehrmann allegedly then offered “to pay for the evening”.

“At a later date he would then talk to me about how he wanted to be repaid,” Mr Auerbach said.

What followed, Mr Auerbach said, was a request for “per diem” payment.

“I recall seeing the invoice,” Mr Auerbach said.

“It was sent to either me or our unit manager or both of us. But it was an invoice for the period covering that trip in Sydney.”

... after his affidavits were read into the court system - all four of them.

As per previous practice, they will appear on the public court file following any redactions that need to be made.

He is first asked about photographs in his affidavit, taken from a laptop, of messages sent between Ms Higgins and Peter Fitzsimons, the husband of Lisa Wilkinson.

He says the reflection in the glass of the laptop is Mark Llewellyn, the EP of Spotlight.

Then he is taken to a meal he and Mr Llewellyn had with Mr Lehrmann and his media minder John Macgowan in November 2022, to talk about a possible story.

He then says they left the restaurant, Mr Llewellyn forgot his laptop, and Mr Auerbach took it with him to his home in the Sydney harbourside suburb of Elizabeth Bay.

With Mr Auerbach about to be called to the witness box.

Mr Auerbach arrived at the Federal Court on Thursday afternoon alongside his solicitor.

Wearing a dark suit and carrying an umbrella, Mr Auerbach was greeted by a large media scrum as he made his way into the court complex in the Sydney CBD.

“I’m just here to assist the court,” Mr Auerbach said as he walked in.

Outside court on Thursday, Seven senior executive Bruce McWilliam told reporters that he “rejected” the allegation that Mr Auerbach had been subjected to bullying and anti-semitism.

“Of course I do, of course I do,” Mr McWilliam said outside court