00:00 Lauren Gain worked in the Department of Defence at the time of Ms Higgins' alleged assault
00:08 and she was out with Ms Higgins, Mr Learman and another political staffer at a nightclub
00:14 in central Canberra on the night in question, immediately before Bruce Learman and Brittany
00:21 Higgins then attended Parliament House in the early hours of that Saturday morning.
00:27 Ms Gain told the court today that when the group was at the nightclub she observed Mr
00:33 Learman and Ms Higgins touching each other's thighs, sitting quite close to one another
00:39 and also sharing a kiss.
00:42 Mr Learman had previously given evidence that while he was verbally flirtatious to Ms Higgins
00:48 there was no physical contact beyond that between the pair and he wasn't physically
00:55 flirtatious.
00:56 So that was Ms Gain's evidence today of her observations on the night and when it was
01:03 put to her by Mr Learman's legal team that that recollection was inaccurate she rejected
01:08 that and said it was clearly a memory that she had.
01:12 Ms Gain also testified to the Federal Court today about Ms Higgins' level of intoxication
01:19 on that night.
01:22 She told the court that indeed in her view she was intoxicated and that she had had some
01:27 previous social functions with Ms Higgins and used that as a reference point for judging
01:32 that she was affected by alcohol.
01:35 She also told the court that Ms Higgins did fall over at one point while the group was
01:41 at that nightclub and testified that that had occurred upon her returning to the lounge
01:48 area where they were seated.
01:50 Bruce Learman of course denies any wrongdoing and there were no findings out of an ACT Supreme
01:58 Court criminal trial last year which was ultimately aborted due to a juror's misconduct.
02:04 And what was the discussion in court about whether Mr Learman was identified in the program?
02:10 A number of witnesses have given their accounts of whether they suspected who the identity
02:17 of the unnamed man who was the subject of these allegations was.
02:23 Mr Learman has claimed that he was identifiable in the program through other details that
02:31 were included.
02:32 And several of the witnesses today told the court that they did believe to some degree
02:38 that the person who was referred to in both the Network 10 report and an article on news.com.au
02:46 was indeed Mr Learman, a former media adviser to Peter Dutton when he was the Home Affairs
02:52 Minister, Austin Wienke.
02:54 He agreed with a proposition from Mr Learman's legal team that his identity was an open secret
03:00 among staffers at Parliament House.
03:04 Although the court also heard from a former policy adviser to Linda Reynolds for whom
03:09 both Bruce Learman and Brittany Higgins worked.
03:13 And that man was Jesse Watton who told the court he had some brief concern that people
03:19 may suspect he was the subject of the allegations Brittany Higgins was making.
03:25 And the reason this is important is because Channel 10's first line of defence in a way
03:31 is that it did not identify Mr Learman in its broadcast.
03:36 And so that is a hurdle Mr Learman and his legal team need to clear before the judge
03:42 can then consider whether the imputations in the program were true or not or were indeed,
03:51 as Mr Learman claims, defamatory.
03:53 And where does the hearing go from here?
03:57 Well it will resume tomorrow and continue hearing from these witnesses that the Network
04:02 10 are calling in an effort to try and prove the substantial truth of its case.
04:08 We expect tomorrow to hear from the Parliament House security guards who were on duty on
04:14 the night in question and who witnessed Mr Learman and Ms Higgins' arrival.
04:20 We've already heard from Nicola Anderson in the criminal trial and also speaking to Four
04:27 Corners when the allegations first emerged in 2021.
04:32 We also expect to hear from Ben Dilloway who was a close friend of Brittany Higgins and
04:39 to whom she frequently disclosed some level of detail about her allegations after the
04:46 alleged assault had occurred and to whom she was communicating with quite often in the
04:53 aftermath.
04:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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