Lawyers representing Channel Ten have won a bombshell bid to reopen the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial, with the judgment delayed to next week.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee has indicated that Taylor Auerbach, whose affidavit is at the centre of his decision to reopen the case, will take the stand at 2:15pm on Thursday.

According to the affidavit, thousands of pages of “deeply personal” exchanges involving Brittany Higgins were leaked to Seven’s Spotlight program.

Channel Ten’s barrister Matt Collins KC opened his submissions at 5pm by revealing the affidavit prepared by Taylor Auerbach included more than 2,000 pages of private text messages between Ms Higgins and her former boyfriend, Ben Dillaway.

“The application we agitate is unusual and exceptional,’’ Dr Collins said.

“These are deeply personal exchanges between Ms Higgins and her former boyfriend that are not otherwise in the public domain and which are the subject of implied undertakings in our submission,’’ he said.

Mr Lehrmann’s legal team indicated they would oppose the application.

Channel Ten indicated the material was leaked contrary to an implied undertaking in the criminal trial that the matter could not be used for another purpose.