Network Ten’s barrister Matthew Collins KC has accused Bruce Lehrmann of committing an ‘outrageous contempt of court’.
He accused Mr Lehrmann of handing about 2300 pages of Brittany Higgins’ private texts to Channel Seven, ahead of his two interviews on Spotlight which aired in June last year.
Those texts were between Ms Higgins and her ex-boyfriend, Ben Dillaway.
Dr Collins accused Mr Lehrmann of handing those texts to the network to embarrass Ms Higgins and to influence the defamation trial.
He told the court that Mr Auerbach has accused Mr Lehrmann of using Channel Seven’s photocopier to copy documents in his possession.
Wilkinson’s barrister Ms Chrysanthou then told the court Channel Seven’s agreement with Mr Lehramnn went further than covering his rent.
The network paid about $100,000 for Mr Lehrmann’s rent for a year in exchange for exclusive interviews.
She said: ‘In addition to the one year of rent, it would appear there were months more of rent paid for by Network Seven in Mr Auerbach’s name.’
Ms Chrysanthou also said Mr Auerbach had provided photos of a laptop which displayed texts between Wilkinson’s husband Peter FitzSimons and Ms Higgins.
Mr FizSimons brokered Ms Higgins’ $325,000 book deal with Penguin Random House in 2021.
‘In the reflection, you can see [Spotlight producer] Mark Llewellyn,’ she said.
‘Those photos were taken in an apartment which was rented for Mr Lehrmann to live in … in Mr Auerbach’s name.’
Network Seven was subpoenaed to produce material relating to the agreement with Mr Lehrmann prior to the defamation case last year.
On Tuesday, Ms Chrysanthou suggested some of the original material may have been destroyed.
