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 the story but considered it "very sensitive" and was "concerned there was a risk of political interference or intervention if the story leaked prior to broadcast" (Bendall (at [47])).

855 How this risk of political interference or intervention would have manifested itself was not explained.

856 Mr Bendall made the formal decision to broadcast on 15 February. Mr Bendall said he viewed the script and "WIP video" on several occasions (Bendall (at [67])). He regarded Ms Higgins as credible and someone of high integrity because, among other things, he "found her recollection of what had happened to her consistent and compelling" and that he had been (Bendall (at [73])):

… shown other evidence supporting Ms Higgins' allegations, including the photograph of a bruise that she said was taken just after the alleged assault. I do not recall who showed me this photograph. I felt this photograph added to the likelihood of her account as being true.

857 He would no doubt be right in this view if the bruise photograph could be relied upon. But it is unclear he was apprised of any inconsistences concerning the retention of data by Ms Higgins. It does not appear he was told there was no contemporaneous record of the existence of the bruise photograph at the time it was said to have been taken. Given the absence of evidence, it is more likely than not he was not told of any of these things. Indeed, he gave evidence of being unaware of "any inconsistencies in Ms Higgins' story" that caused him concern (Bendall (at [73])).

858 By the time of the interview there was no explanation as to what had happened to Ms Higgins' phone or why certain photos and text messages survived or why nothing was available in Ms Higgins' iCloud. Indeed, this general issue was not explored in any detail beyond Ms Wilkinson raising the topic of the mobile in relatively cursory fashion near the end of the interview (with Ms Higgins saying her WhatsApp had crashed and "even though I'd swapped previous handsets before, it lost all my previous sort of memory") and Ms Wilkinson commenting "Your phone, what, inexplicably died?" (a proposition with which Ms Higgins agreed) (Ex R220 (at 1:58:53)).

859 Moreover, with respect to the bruise photograph, Ms Wilkinson just assumed its veracity by asking (R220 (at 0:32:42)): "You have a photo that you took of a bruise that developed that night. What does that photograph show" and Ms Higgins replied the bruise was caused by Mr Lehrmann's leg pinning her down during the assault. Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369