Bruce Lehrmann’s mad dash out of Sydney just moments after he was branded a rapist – and the unlikely ally he turned to for help

Bruce Lehrmann frantically stormed onto the highway and left Sydney in the moments after he was branded a rapist by a Federal Court judge as he sought refuge from the media in a police station.

Lehrmann found out on Monday morning that he had lost his long-running defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson when Judge Michael Lee handed down his 324-page judgment.

The judge found, on a balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019 – despite his insistence to the contrary.

The findings were an unexpected blow to Lehrmann, who had brought the legal action against himself, and he apparently couldn’t wait to leave court on Monday.

He stormed into court with his lawyers, dodging television cameras and reporters with microphones, refusing to answer questions like, “how humiliating is this for you?” and ‘was it worth it?’

He was chased on foot across the road and into his lawyer’s office, before leaving the office and jumping into a borrowed Mazda CX9 and driving to the Central Coast.

A freelance photographer told Daily Mail Australia that Lehrmann knew he was being followed and drove around Lane Cove and the M1 motorway in an attempt to lose the cameras.

Bruce Lehrmann took refuge in Gosford police station (pictured)

After a chase around Sydney’s lower north shore, the pair traveled along North Connex before a woman in a white utility vehicle appeared to try to block the photographer’s view.

According to the freelancer, the intention was to obstruct his view so that he could not see Lehrmann leaving the highway.

But that didn’t work either.

He was eventually tracked to Avoca, about 100 kilometers north of Sydney.

“He came north of Avoca, past a police shop, then called out to some officers walking by and drove around again,” the photographer said.

‘He drove onto the road and went into a dead end, then drove past the police shop again and continued on.

Lehrmann then asked a police officer for help, before the photographer shouted out his car window: “We are news and that is Bruce Lehrmann.”

He said, “The officer looked at me and at him, and he didn’t care.”

Lehrmann then left the car in a restricted zone outside Gosford police station and fled inside, before officers took him to an undisclosed location for his own safety.

Brittany Higgins wore a white sheath dress (pictured) on the night she claimed she was raped. Bruce Lehrmann is pictured next to her in a light blue shirt

Police later called the photographer to confirm that he was a news media outlet and not a dangerous stalker.

When asked how Lehrmann was doing, the officer said, “Yes, he’s doing well.”

The police are not investigating the case.

The situation unfolded in the hours after Lehrmann’s defamation lawsuit backfired.

Lehrmann has filed a lawsuit over an interview Ms Higgins did with Wilkinson on Network Ten’s program The Project in February 2021, in which she first made her rape allegations against him.

He was not named in that broadcast but claimed friends and colleagues were able to identify him as Ms Higgins’ rapist. He strongly denied raping Ms Higgins and launched a defamation action in an attempt to clear his name.

However, on Monday Judge Lee found that Lehrmann returned Ms Higgins to a ‘secluded location’, namely the ministerial suite, after a night out with colleagues with the intention of having sex with her.

He said Lehrmann was “determined” to have sex with Ms Higgins, that he knew she was very drunk and that he did not consider whether she would consent to intercourse.