Taylor Auerbach, who previously worked for the Seven Network, told a Federal Court defamation trial Lehrmann later leaked text messages extracted by police from alleged victim Brittany Higgins’ phone.

The messages came from a document compiled ahead of the ex-Liberal staffer’s trial for allegedly raping Ms Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, Mr Auerbach told court.

Lehrmann rejects that anything sexual happened between himself and Ms Higgins. His 2022 criminal trial in the ACT was derailed due to juror misconduct, with prosecutors dropping the charges against him over fears for Ms Higgins’ mental health.

Lehrmann has also denied providing Seven with any information for the Spotlight item, besides his interview.

Mr Auerbach gave a second day of evidence in the Federal Court on Friday in a defamation lawsuit brought by Lehrmann against Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with Ms Higgins about the allegations.

He said he helped woo Lehrmann to take part in an exclusive interview for the Seven’s Spotlight current affairs program.

In an affidavit, Mr Auerbach said he was also sent messages between Ms Higgins and journalist Peter Fitzsimmons, which made up part of the confidential police file.

Mr Auerbach said he was sent photographs of a document on a laptop showing screenshots of text messages between the pair.

He claimed the photographs were taken by Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn, whose image he could recognise reflected on the laptop screen.

According to Mr Auerbach, the trio also had dinner at Sydney restaurant Spice Temple in March 2023, during which Mr Llewellyn asked Lehrmann if he had documents for the criminal proceedings, to which he replied that he did.

Lehrmann accompanied the men to Seven’s office at Eveleigh, where he made copies of some of an estimated 500 pages of double-sided documents from the criminal case, according to Mr Auerbach.

“I viewed some of the documents that were being copied and could see that they were exhibits from the applicant’s criminal proceedings,” Mr Auerbach said in his affidavit.

“I saw, by way of example, Ms Higgins’ text messages.”

According to Mr Auerbach, Lehrmann told him on a number of occasions that evening he would only get access to the documents “when you sign me”.

Seven has also broadly denied Mr Auerbach’s allegations, labelling them “false and misleading” and adding that it did not reveal journalists’ sources.

Former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach arrives at court.

When called as a witness on Thursday, Mr Auerbach claimed he was tasked to babysit Lehrmann and court him for the interview.

He told the court that on one occasion in early 2023 he and Lehrmann had dined together at an upmarket Potts Point restaurant in Sydney’s east before going to a hotel room in the city.

“Channel Seven had put Bruce up at the Meriton for what he described as a ‘coming down to Sydney to unwind’ kind of trip,” Mr Auerbach said.

When the pair returned to the hotel suite, Lehrmann allegedly produced a bag of cocaine, which he purchased during dinner, and began searching the internet for sex workers.

Mr Auerbach said he was concerned by Lehrmann’s behaviour, texting his boss at the time Steve Jackson, that the prospective interviewee was, “on the warpath”.

“I think I used the words, ‘this is f***ed’,” he told the court.

Justice Michael Lee had been poised to deliver his final judgment on the defamation action, but postponed giving his ruling after Mr Auerbach’s claims came to light.

Lehrmann’s alleged leaking of confidential material would be in breach of what is known as the Harman undertaking, which prevents information not tendered in court being used for other purposes.

Matthew Richardson SC, representing Lehrmann, put to Mr Auerbach that he was being untruthful in his account in order to damage his former employer and colleagues at Seven, which the former TV producer denied.