Karaoke kid kicked out: Bruce Lehrmann ‘evicted’ from Sydney house

The Edward Street house was recently rented to Paul Farrell, a good friend of the owner’s husband.

Farrell, who had offered up his spare bedroom to Lehrmann, is said to have ordered his friend from the house as well.

Farrell was “ropeable” upon coming home from work to find Lehrmann throwing a party in his rented home. However, neighbours say the noise has been going on for more than a month.

Lehrmann’s partying habits have long worried close friends.

In February 2021, The Project aired Lisa Wilkinson’s interview with Brittany Higgins. Higgins alleged an unnamed staffer raped her, later revealed as Lehrmann.

Lehrmann messaged two friends that evening after the interview went to air, saying, “Need bags” and “Let’s get lit”.

“You got any gear?” he asked a third friend at 10:33pm on February 15.

“No I am at home. And you guys need to keep it clean. Enough!!!” the friend replied a minute later.

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“Tomorrow won’t be good … Rein the shit in.”

Lehrmann continued to message other friends about “bags”, referring to cocaine, the court documents show.

His worried friend continued to counsel him to “take this seriously” and stay inside his apartment.

Lehrmann, two days later, walked into Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital in crisis over the allegations, medical records released by the courts said.

He reported “occasional” or “recreational” cocaine use to his doctors.

Farrell’s connections to Lehrmann predate the former political staffer’s exit from his Balgowlah rental.

Farrell’s name appeared in court documents filed by Lehrmann’s legal team in February 2023.

“Paul Farrell of Vaucluse”, the staffer’s lawyers claimed, had identified Lehrmann as the unnamed man in Ten’s online story.

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In March, Lehrmann uploaded photographs to social media showing a group of people smiling around the dinner table in his then-home.

“The family minus a couple cause we don’t wait when the food this good,” Lehrmann wrote along with a string of emojis.

Farrell was one of the tagged “family” members not present at the dinner.

Another video, filmed by a woman named Nadja, inadvertently captured one of Lehrmann’s dinner guests cutting up what appeared to be white powder on a clean plate at the dinner table.

Two days later, The Daily Mail claimed an unnamed person was trying to sell photographs of Lehrmann snorting a thick line of white powder off his dinner table with a five-dollar note in one hand – and a chihuahua in his other.

The chihuahua, reportedly also named Bruce, has a note held up to his nose as well.

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Lehrmann told The Mail the white substance was flour and the image had been taken as a joke.

“This has been an inappropriate invasion of my private life and a violation of my privacy,” Lehrmann told The Mail.

The judgment in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten will be delivered on Monday.

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