Bruce Lehrmann defamation case as it happened: Brittany Higgins raped by former staffer, Justice Michael Lee finds

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our live coverage of judgment day in former federal Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.

If you are just joining us now, here’s what you need to know:

• Federal Court Justice Michael Lee has dismissed Lehrmann’s multimillion-dollar defamation case over an interview with Brittany Higgins aired on The Project on February 15, 2021.
• In a 324-page judgment, Lee found that Lehrmann had been identified in the interview, which did not name him. Ten and Wilkinson did not dispute that if the judge found Lehrmann was identified in the broadcast that it defamed him by suggesting he was guilty of raping Higgins.

• However, Lee found the media parties had established a defence of truth and had successfully proven to the civil standard – on the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019. This is lower than the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt.
• Fronting a large press pack outside court, Wilkinson said she had “published a true story about a rape” in Parliament House in March 2019. As she walked off arm in arm with her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, Wilkinson added: “I feel glad for the women of Australia today.”

Justin Quill, one of Network Ten’s solicitors, has praised Brittany Higgins’ bravery to testify in the unique circumstances in which she did.

He said Higgins was “particularly brave to come to court and, unlike most rape victims, come to court having chosen not to have anonymity, and give her evidence in the glare of publicity and spotlight”.

Quill said he knew “those within Bruce Lehrmann’s team expected her not to attend”.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said that while Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson had “legally justified their imputation of rape”, it did not mean their conduct “was justified in any broader or colloquial sense”.

“The contemporaneous documents and the broadcast itself demonstrate the allegation of rape was the minor theme, and the allegation of cover-up was the major motif,” the judge said in his 324-page judgment.

Lee said the “publication of accusations of corrupt conduct in putting up roadblocks and forcing a rape victim to choose between her career and justice” saw the broadcaster’s program The Project, of which Wilkinson was then a co-host, take away the “glittering prize” of Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report at the 2022 Logie Awards.

However, he said that accusation “was supposition without reasonable foundation in verifiable fact”, its dissemination “caused a brume of confusion” and it did “much collateral damage”.