Bruce Lehrmann has broken his silence following allegations of rape at Parliament House by his former colleague Brittany Higgins.
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann says he has not ruled out suing Brittany Higgins personally for defamation, in his first television interview since she accused him of raping her at Parliament House in 2019.
Mr Lehrmann’s trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct last year, and there are no findings against him.
Speaking to 7NEWS Spotlight, Mr Lehrmann strenuously denied raping Ms Higgins but acknowledged that many people do not believe him.
“I accept that there’s going to be 50 per cent of the country, probably more, that think I’m a rapist,” he said.
Mr Lehrmann is currently suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for an interview with Ms Higgins on The Project, having settled a separate claim against News Life Media and journalist Samantha Maiden.
He is also suing the ABC for broadcasting a speech by Ms Higgins at the National Press Club early last year.
Mr Lehrmann said he was motivated to bring the defamation action in an effort to reduce the impact Ms Higgins’s allegation had had on his reputation.
“I don’t want to be known as the guy who could have, would have, allegedly raped Brittany Higgins,” Mr Lehrmann said.
“That’s a tag that’s out there now, and I don’t have the court system to remove that tag any more.”
But Mr Lehrmann said he had the support and belief of his mother, who he described as “the only person” he needed to believe him.
“I don’t need anybody else because that’s my mum,” he said.
“I’m a mummy’s boy, and I’m proud of it.”
In his statement of claim in his defamation action, Mr Lehrmann alleges he was identifiable in The Project’s interview with Ms Higgins, despite not being named.
In the TV interview, he repeated those claims and said the reaction from people in his social circle was swift.
“Live before me, sitting in my lawyer’s office, I’m seeing friends of mine block me on Facebook, remove me from group chats,” he said.
“It is the metaphorical version of a nuclear bomb or the world exploding before your eyes.
“If that’s not a clear indication of being identified without having been named formally, I don’t know what is.”
Mr Lehrmann said he had also not ruled out defamation action against Ms Higgins in future.
“I haven’t ruled it out but I’m cognisant of the fact that … it’s not a good look, you kick someone when they’re down. I have some sympathy for her,” he said.
‘The guy who ruined my life’
Mr Lehrmann also used the interview to take aim at the ACT’s top prosecutor, Shane Drumgold, who lead the case against him.
When Mr Drumgold announced that a retrial would not go ahead, citing “an unacceptable risk” to Ms Higgins’s welfare, he said he believed there were still reasonable prospects of a conviction.
Mr Lehrmann said that comment was unfair.
“He took my opportunity for a not guilty verdict away from me, but he then told Australia ‘I still could have won it’. What the f***?” he said.
“This is the guy who ruined my life.”
Mr Drumgold’s actions and those of other criminal justice agencies have recently been examined in an ACT inquiry into how the case was handled.
But no legal representatives have argued during the public hearings that Mr Drumgold was wrong to have taken the case to court.
Grilled on movements in ministerial office
Mr Lehrmann has said that on the night of the alleged incident, he and Ms Higgins had no further contact once they had entered the office of Senator Linda Reynolds.
Mr Lerhmann said he and Ms Higgins were at opposite sides of the office and separated by a wall.
He said he was attempting to be “a gentleman” in assisting Ms Higgins to travel to Parliament House.
Ms Higgins claims she did not intend to return to Parliament House, and believed the Uber the pair shared would take her home.
Mr Lehrmann was challenged about his version of events during the interview, including why he left the office without saying goodbye.
“The least you could do was just pop your head in, it’d take you two seconds, and say ‘Brittany are you right? Have you finished? Because I’m going’,” journalist Liam Bartlett put to him.
“I assumed that she was there to do work,” Mr Lehrmann replied.
“It’s Parliament House, she’s a staffer in her own right.”
In a statement, a Seven spokesperson said Mr Lehrmann was not paid for the interview, but the program assisted with accommodation as part of the filming.
.jpg)
