review of the CCTV footage (Ex 17 (at 01:45:13–25)) establishes that Mr Lehrmann removed but one phone from the security tray.
457 Ms Anderson then escorted Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins to the Ministerial Suite, which she then opened with a key (Ex 17 (at 01:48:10); Anderson (at [35])).
G.4Whisky, and the Accounts of What Happened Inside the Ministerial Suite
458 I will set out each account and comment upon them before detailing my findings and coming to my conclusions below. Prior to doing so, however, it is worth making findings about whisky.
IThe Whisky at the Office
459 I am satisfied that being conscious of the importance of the whisky, Mr Lehrmann has made several false statements about this topic.
460 There is no doubt that Mr Lehrmann had at least three bottles of whisky and other alcoholic beverages in the old Senate office, which he moved to the Ministerial Suite (T196.33–38; Ex 29 and 30; T191.18–193.33). If it was ever in doubt, which it is not, Ms Hamer and Mr Wotton confirmed this was the case (T1061.7–9; Hamer (at [6]); Wotton 28 September 2023 (at [38])). Hence the terms of the invitation given to Ms Higgins to accompany him to the Ministerial Suite.
461 I am also satisfied that Mr Lehrmann gave deliberately false answers to the AFP during his 19 April 2021 interview when he said: "yeah, I didn't have any alcohol in my office" (Ex 31, Q762) and that to his knowledge, there was no alcohol in the Ministerial Suite (Ex 31, Q754; T196.28–38). Importantly, when the AFP put to him that Ms Brown had told the AFP that: "he just came in to have a drink – to drink his whisky", Mr Lehrmann doubled down and asserted: "… there's no alcohol, I didn't have any alcohol, so, to access" (Ex 31, Q764).
462 Demonstrating his forensic difficulty with his representations concerning the Scottish libation, his evidence on this topic at trial was all over the shop. Despite saying in his evidence-in-chief that he had told Ms Brown that he "came back to drink some whisky or something like that" (T153.45–47), in cross-examination, Mr Lehrmann said that what in fact he had said to Ms Brown was that he "came back to have a drink" (T228.19–24). But he should have known this excuse would not fly as he had accepted that he told Ms Brown in their second meeting on 26 March 2019 that he went back to drink whisky (T228.26–32) and,
