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 her representation to Mr Dillaway on the day after the incident (despite at the time being "cagey"), that "we brought the party back to Parliament House" (T1216.29–30).

427 I am satisfied that regardless of whether there was ever any settled initial plan to share an Uber home, at some stage, and with the acquiescence of the inebriated Ms Higgins, the plan became for the Uber to go to Parliament House following what Mr Lehrmann had said about whisky. Needless to say, based on this finding (and even on the evidence she gave at the trial), the representations made by Ms Higgins in the PL that it was without "agreement" between Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins that Mr Lehrmann got into the taxi and directed it to stop at Parliament House (cf PL cll 2.4, 2.5) are incorrect.

G.2A Snapshot in Time: Things We Know as to the Position as at 1:40am

428 I previously commenced a defamation judgment (Oliver v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd [2019] FCA 583 (at [1]–[2])) by referring to the saw that "nothing good happens after two o'clock in the morning" and observing it reflected the wisdom that "drink and the wee hours often occasions trouble".

429 Here too there was a combination of drink and the wee hours, and it led, on any view of it, to trouble: but before we examine what that trouble entailed, it is worth pausing to consider what was likely in the minds of one man and one woman who found themselves being conveyed by an unknown Uber driver to Parliament House shortly before twenty to two in the morning.

430 Dealing first with Mr Lehrmann, he had been attracted to Ms Higgins for a while and, for the first time, had just been able to kiss the object of his attraction passionately, placed his hand intimately on her leg and thigh, and had his physical displays of affection requited.

431 Secondly, as is reflected by what had just taken place, he was a man who had already acted unfaithfully towards his girlfriend by the standards of right-thinking people and had no scruples about doing so again that evening.

432 Thirdly, he likely wanted to continue to be intimate with Ms Higgins. Put bluntly, he was a 23-year-old male cheating on his girlfriend, having just "hooked up" with a woman he found sexually attractive. Human experience suggests what he then wanted to happen is not exactly shrouded in mystery. Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369