By Miklos Bolza in Sydney

BRUCE Lehrmann is a dishonest, evasive man whose frequent lies about his alleged rape of Brittany Higgins mean his entire account of what happened should be disbelieved, a court has heard.

Lawyers for Network Ten have rejected Lehrmann’s claims that nothing sexual happened between him and Ms Higgins in Senator Linda Reynolds’ office at Parliament House in March 2019.

Giving closing submissions in a defamation case brought by Lehrmann, Ten’s barrister Matthew Collins KC said the former Liberal staffer was evasive and defensive when giving evidence.

He made “bizarre” and “absurd” lies about what he claimed happened, the barrister told Justice Michael Lee.

“Mr Lehrmann was revealed to be a fundamentally dishonest man who was prepared to say or do anything he perceived to advance his interests,” Dr Collins said.

Lehrmann denies the rape and is suing Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over a February 2021 report on “The Project” featuring an interview with Ms Higgins.

On Thursday, Dr Collins said Lehrmann was not identifiable due to the report except for among a small group of individuals who already knew of an alleged incident in Parliament House almost two years earlier.

Even if Lehrmann succeeded in his defamation case, any damages he received would be limited as a result, he said.

The barrister urged Justice Lee to find that sexual intercourse, whether consensual or non-consensual, occurred that night given Ms Higgins was later seen by a security guard naked and passed out on the minister’s couch.

“They weren’t there to play Scrabble,” Dr Collins said.

“There’s a limited universe of things that plausibly happened.”

If the judge found consensual sex had occurred, it was “game over” for Lehrmann who had continually denied anything happened and who had brought his defamation case and defended his criminal trial on a false basis, the barrister argued.

Dr Collins said Ms Higgins, on the other hand, had given compelling, distressing and believable evidence about the rape allegation.

She also made appropriate admissions about mistakes in her prior versions of events, he said.

The judge was simply required to decide whether the core allegation of rape occurred, Dr Collins said.

Lehrmann’s “monstrous” claims Ms Higgins had lied about the rape to keep her job were “utterly incoherent” and should be rejected, he told the court.

Ten did not need to prove claims Ms Higgins felt forced to remain silent as none of her former superiors – Senator Reynolds, chief of staff Fiona Brown or Senator Michaelia Cash – were suing for defamation in this case, Dr Collins said.

Ten is also running a justification defence in which it has to prove it was reasonable in publishing an article of public interest.

Justice Lee might have to grapple with what, if any, damages Lehrmann receives if the rape claim is shown to be true but Ms Higgins’ claims about the actions of others in Parliament House are found to be false.

Lehrmann’s trial in the ACT Supreme Court on a charge of raping Ms Higgins was derailed by juror misconduct.

Prosecutors did not seek a second trial, citing concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health.