Certain CCTV footage from the night of Brittany Higgins' alleged rape was "automatically overridden" and is now gone, a court has heard.
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"That material does not exist," Tim Senior, counsel for Network Ten, told the Federal Court on Monday.
Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann is suing the television station and one of its star hosts, Lisa Wilkinson, for defamation.
He claims to have been defamed in 2021, when The Project broadcast an interview in which Ms Higgins accused an unnamed former colleague of raping her at Parliament House two years earlier.
Mr Lehrmann, who has always denied any wrongdoing, claims he was nevertheless able to be identified as the alleged rapist.
Ten and Ms Wilkinson are defending his defamation claims by arguing, among other things, that Ms Higgins was telling the truth.
During a case management hearing earlier this month, the court heard Ten had subpoenaed the Department of Parliamentary Services to obtain CCTV footage.
Ms Wilkinson's barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, said she was "very concerned" because there had not been "full production by Parliament House in relation to that footage".
She signalled an intention to examine departmental officials about the CCTV footage.
The department later denied it had withheld footage, telling The Canberra Times the subpoena in question "sought production of a very limited set of material".
"The department fully complied with the subpoena and its obligations to the court and did produce material where it located material within the scope of that subpoena," it said in a statement.
"Where there was no material responding to a category of the subpoena, the court and relevant parties were advised of this fact."
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On Monday, Mr Senior told the court it would no longer be necessary to examine the department.
"It's apparent that the material that was the subject of that particular subpoena was not quarantined in any way and was automatically overridden," Mr Senior said.
"Searches have been carried out to see whether that material was on a server somewhere, but apparently it's not.
"We were satisfied that the scope of the subpoena was understood, the searches had been carried out, and had produced no documents.
"We were satisfied as to why no documents were produced in response to that subpoena."
Mr Senior indicated the department had been able to hand over some footage, which "would have been the material that was broadcast" recently on Network Seven.
That station aired an interview with Mr Lehrmann on its 7News Spotlight program last month.
Also on Monday, material was produced under subpoena by the National Press Club, publisher Penguin Random House, and top ABC political journalist Laura Tingle.
Mr Lehrmann is also suing the national broadcaster over its live coverage of Ms Higgins, who secured a book deal with Penguin Random House, addressing the press club in February 2022.
It is not yet clear whether that case, which the ABC is defending, will be heard alongside Mr Lehrmann's lawsuits against Network Ten and Ms Wilkinson in November.
Justice Michael Lee has indicated that would be his preference.
