Bruce at TAB amid hearing

He might be at the centre of one of the most prominent legal cases in Australia’s recent history, but Bruce Lehrmann tried to give his weekend some normality when he visited a TAB in Sydney on Sunday.

Channel 7 has been paying for the former Liberal staffer, 28, to live in a multimilliondollar rental home in Balgowlah as he takes Channel 10 and star presenter Lisa Wilkinson to court in a blockbuster defamation trial.

On Sunday, Mr Lehrmann was seen wearing the unofficial Young Liberal uniform of a blue polo shirt and chino shorts while he visited the TAB in Neutral Bay, presumably for a punt.

It comes after he also went to a Liberal fundraiser, attended by deputy leader Sussan Ley, at party stalwart Paul Haege’s mansion in Darling Point last Thursday night.

However, Mr Lehrmann’s brief respite from the pressurecooker environment of the courtroom will not last long.

This week he returned to the Federal Court in Sydney’s CBD as he fights to prove Channel 10 and Ms Wilkinson defamed him over a 2021 interview on The Project in which fellow former staffer Britanny Higgins alleged she was sexually assaulted in Parliament House.

He was not named in the interview, but he is arguing he was still identifiable in the piece and it destroyed his reputation.

Ms Higgins has told the current case she woke to find Mr Lehrmann sexually assaulting her in the Parliament House office after a night of drinking.

Police did charge Mr Lehrmann with sexual assault following the broadcast, but he pleaded not guilty.

His first trial was aborted due to juror misconduct when one juror brought an academic paper on sexual assault into the jury room.

A second planned trial was called off by prosecutors over fears of Ms Higgins’ deteriorating mental health.

His criminal charge was then dropped.

Mr Lehrmann was never found guilty of anything and has always denied any wrongdoing.