“He was not on the scene in 2019,” Collins replied.
Lee requested Collins if he may “make an observation that your competition is the proof of Mr Sharaz will not be related to a reality in challenge in these proceedings”.
“No, Your Honour, I’ve not mentioned that,” Collins replied. “The purpose I made was Mr Sharaz was not a witness … [in 2019].”
The court docket has heard Sharaz accompanied Higgins to a gathering between Higgins, Ten journalist Lisa Wilkinson and Ten producer Angus Llewellyn in 2021 earlier than The Challenge broadcast Wilkinson’s interview with Higgins on February 15 that yr. Lehrmann alleges the interview defamed him by wrongly alleging he raped Higgins in Parliament Home in March 2019
Reynolds’ former chief of workers
Reynolds’ then chief of workers, Fiona Brown, is in search of to be excused from giving proof within the defamation case.
Collins foreshadowed there can be authorized argument on Thursday morning about that request.
Sexual assault denied
Lehrmann has denied sexually assaulting Higgins and has instructed the court docket that there was no sexual contact between the pair.
Lehrmann’s ACT Supreme Courtroom trial for sexual assault was aborted final yr because of juror misconduct. The cost towards Lehrmann was later dropped altogether owing to considerations about Higgins’ psychological well being.
The defamation go well with
Lehrmann was not named in Ten’s broadcast and a preliminary challenge within the case is whether or not he was recognized by way of different means.
If the court docket finds he was recognized, Ten and Wilkinson are in search of to depend on a variety of defences together with fact, which might require the court docket to be glad to the civil commonplace – on the steadiness of chances – that he raped Higgins. They known as Higgins to offer proof as a part of their fact defence.
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