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Bruce Lehrmann has returned to social media two years after he was accused of raping Brittany Higgins in a Canberra Parliamentary office in 2019.
The former political staffer ditched his Facebook and Instagram accounts when the row blew up in 2021, but he is now believed to have returned to Instagram.
He had earlier been driven off Twitter by a mysterious stalker just weeks before Ms Higgins went public with her allegations.
A new private locked account has been started in the name of Bruce Emery, Mr Lehrmann’s middle name, and including his initials and 1995 year of birth.
The account’s bio includes a version of a poignant quote from US author Mark Twain: ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’
Bruce Lehrmann has returned to social media two years after he was accused of raping Brittany Higgins in a Canberra Parliamentary office in 2019.
The account’s bio includes a version of a poignant quote from US author Mark Twain: ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes’
It also reveals he is now a law student aspiring to be a criminal barrister, and is a ‘handy golfer’.
The account’s avatar picture appears to show him sitting smiling outside a beachside fishing shack next to a rod and bait bin, and yellow cricket bat.
The account is hidden from public view but has made eight posts and already has 244 followers, while following 1,451 other users.
Mr Lehrmann, 27, was reported to have ditched all his social media accounts in the immediate wake of Ms Higgins going public with her accusations in February 2021.
She claimed the pair had returned drunk from a night out in Canberra to then-minister Linda Reynolds’ office where she was then allegedly raped.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the claims and his criminal trial was abandoned last October over juror misconduct.
Plans for a retrial were later scrapped and all charges against Mr Lehrmann dropped over concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health.
Mr Lehrmann is now suing Ten, News Corp and the ABC for defamation over their reporting of the allegations.
Court documents released last month revealed how Mr Lehrmann had ditched his Twitter account after he was repeatedly trolled by a mysteriously stalker before Ms Higgins, 28, went public.
Transcripts of his interviews with police investigating the alleged rape detailed how he had repeatedly been harassed by a user impersonating him and sending him ‘disgusting’ messages.
‘I got rid of Twitter because it was just this relentless, just impersonating, using my photo, my bio and then they would send out Tweets,’ Mr Lehrmann told detectives.
‘There was a numerous attempts to impersonate my account. They’d have no followers, but they’d Tweet at me…Just with disgusting things.
‘I would report it and this person would then create another account.’
Mr Lehrmann is now suing Ten, News Corp and the ABC for defamation over their reporting of the allegations (picture, Brittany Higgins with Lisa Wilkinson who aired her allegations on Ten’s The Project in February 2021)
Brittan Higgins (centre) claimed the pair had returned drunk from a night out in Canberra to then-minister Linda Reynolds’ office where she was then allegedly raped by Bruce Lehrmann who strenuously maintains his innocence
He said he never reported it to police because ‘I didn’t think that my life was in danger and I thought it’s a keyboard warrior.’
He said the Twitter onslaught began in the first half of January 2021, just weeks before Ms Higgins went public with her claims in February 2021.
Mr Lehrman told police there were ‘various accounts being created’, sending him messages calling him ‘Bruce the rapist’ and alleging ‘You’re a rapist.’
‘[They were] Trying to follow me, tag me,’ he told detectives, according to the court documents.
But he insisted: ‘Obviously I didn’t think much of it at the time.’
He said he changed his passwords to lock down his account but finally axed his Twitter account when the stalking continued.
He added: ‘I suspended my Twitter account way back in January when whoever this was impersonating my account.’
Mr Lehrmann also told police how he had also received chilling messages from a fake email account made out in his name, warning him someone was ‘coming for him’
It added: ‘It’s going to be a magical 2021.’
He also told detectives he had got a friend request on Twitter from Ms Higgins’ now fiance, David Sharaz.
Mr Lehrmann said: ‘I’ve never really known him.
‘It’s possible that I met him over the course of my career when he was a journalist. But he sent me a Friend Request on Twitter.
‘I got an In-box on Twitter that said, ‘Hi, Bruce, um, thanks for adding me. You may remember me from your days working with Linda Reynolds.’
‘I’ve gone, oh, okay.’
An ACT board of inquiry – equivalent to a Royal Commission – into Mr Lehrmann’s prosecution opened on Monday to probe claims police pressured ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold over the case.
It is examining whether the various criminal justice agencies involved – including police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Victims of Crime Commissioner – acted appropriately.
The opening day of the inquiry heard the relationship between police and prosecutors during the investigation was ‘beset by tensions’ from its outset.
Bruce Lehrmann ditched his Twitter account after he was trolled by a mysterious stalker before Brittany Higgins went public with her rape allegations
