“Given his emphatic denials of sexual intercourse or any similar intimate interaction whatsoever, there was no lack of fairness in not putting to Mr Lehrmann that he was reckless,” the submissions said.
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They said Lehrmann’s lawyers took a different approach during the trial, but his new lawyer “now apparently [takes] the view that it was unfair … not have asked him specific questions about consent, namely recklessness, presumably something like ‘you didn’t care if she was consenting one or way the other, did you’.”
“It is difficult to see what difference putting those propositions would have made or how Mr Lehrmann has been denied natural justice or procedural fairness by the fact that this line of questioning was not pursued.”
During the trial in 2023, Ten’s barrister, Dr Matt Collins, KC, put to Lehrmann during cross-examination that he had sex with Higgins on the couch in Reynolds’ office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
“I did not,” Lehrmann replied.
Lehrmann said later in court that he “didn’t get consent because I didn’t have sexual intercourse with her”.
Lehrmann replied, “No, Dr Collins,” when it was put to him that he was aware that Higgins was either passed out or semi-conscious.
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