Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial LIVE BLOG: Network Ten’s lawyer slams Bruce Lehrmann’s ‘monstrous’ legal move as the defamation trial nears its end – as his counsel prepares for a brutal comeback

Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer, Steven Whybrow SC, began delivering his closing arguments on Friday morning.

He slammed Lisa Wilkinson, Ms Higgins’ best friend Emma Webster, and her fiancé David Sharaz for not telling the former employee to go to the police with her rape allegation, rather than litigating it through the media .

“Oh, if she had followed the police’s advice not to litigate this through the media,” Mr Whybrow said.

“Oh, if only for the people around her, like Sharaz, Webster, Wilkinson and politicians.

“If only they had said, ‘Brittany, this is an important story, but you need to go to the police, this story can wait, let’s deal with the charges against Mr. Lehrmann and you can deal with your story later.'”

He said if that had happened, “we wouldn’t be here.”

“We wouldn’t have had a virus of madness spreading where subjugation went out the window – where the rights of the individual ceased to exist.”

He also slammed anyone who gave Ms. Higgins a platform to speak about her rape allegations before Mr. Lehrmann had even been charged.

Addressing a crowd of thousands at the March4Justice women’s march outside Parliament House in March 2021, Ms Higgins said she was raped inside the building before her allegations were tried in a court.

She was also given a platform to speak at the National Press Club in January 2022, during which she referred to “my rapist” while standing next to Grace Tame, who is a proven victim of sexual assault.

Mr Whybrow said she was praised for her bravery at the National Press Club, adding that her “allegations had not been tested and the only inference is that there is no need to”.

‘How dare we have a fair trial or the presumption of innocence before Mr Lehrmann has even been spoken to by the police, the complainant is making a serious accusation [that] it is publicly broadcast that she was raped,” he said.

“Anyone who tries to counter that story is shouted down as some kind of rape apologist, anti-woman or misogynist.”