Lisa Wilkinson, Channel 10 win defamation case after Bruce Lehrmann found to have raped Brittany Higgins

After one aborted, then abandoned, criminal trial and two successful out of court settlements Bruce Lehrmann was on Monday found to have raped Brittany Higgins.

After one aborted, then abandoned, criminal trial and two successful out of court settlements Bruce Lehrmann was on Monday found to have raped Brittany Higgins.

The decision to the civil standard means Lehrmann lost his defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson and will face legal costs running into the millions of dollars.

“Having escaped the lion’s den Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat,” Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said in his damning judgment on Monday.

None of the main players emerged unscathed from his “trudge” through 15,000 pages of transcripts and more than 1000 exhibits including CCTV, video and audio recordings about the early hours encounter in then-defence minister Linda Reynolds office in Parliament House in March 2019.

Lehrmann launched the defamation action after Network 10 broadcast Wilkinson’s interview with Higgins that did not name Lehrmann as her rapist but he successfully argued clearly identified him.

Justice Lee dismissed Ten’s defence of qualified privilege based on the quality of their journalism.

Bruce Lehrmann leaving the Federal Court on Monday with his reputation in tatters. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

He found Wilkinson was let down by the legal advice she was given before her Logies acceptance speech just eight days before Lehrmann’s criminal trial.

“The conduct of Ten … was grossly improper and unjustifiable,” he said.

Instead he decided the case on the defence that the allegation of rape was true on the balance of probabilities.

The civil standard is not as tough as a criminal finding of beyond reasonable doubt and means Lehrmann has not been found guilty of any crime.

However his reputation is ruined.

To establish that the rape occurred Justice Lee said he went back to the statements both Higgins and Lehrmann gave straight after the late night encounter in the Canberra office.

To get to his finding, he had to be satisfied that they had sex, she did not give consent and Lehrmann had sex with her knowing she did not consent.

The Judge went through the night of heavy drinking before they ended up in an Uber together and noted they had shared a passionate kiss despite protestations to the contrary. “One does not pash passively,” he said.

Justice Lee dismissed Lehrmann’s explanations for why he went back to the office with Higgins after a night out including that he wanted to work on briefs for question time and pick up his keys as “risible” and “fanciful”.

Journalist Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC leaving the Federal Court. Picture: Don Arnold/Getty Images

“Common sense suggests that it is obvious there was one dominant thought running through the mind of Mr Lehrmann as he was approaching Parliament House, and had nothing to do with French submarine contracts,” he said.

“He likely wanted to continue to be intimate with Ms Higgins, put bluntly, he was a 23-year-old male cheating on his girlfriend,” Justice Lee said. “Having just hooked up with a woman he found sexually attractive. Human experience suggests that what he then wanted to happen is not exactly shrouded in mystery.”

Lehrmann sat in court, head bowed, making notes, a long way from the euphoria at the dismissal of his criminal trial when he was filmed singing “I fought the law and Bruce won”.

But Justice Lee also found Higgins to be an unreliable witness who had made “false representations” from 2021 about what happened to her and “sometimes told untruths when it suited her”.

Despite approaching the evidence of “a witness with credibility problems” with great care he said Higgins evidence “Taken as a whole it does not strike me as inherently implausible, unlike the account of Mr Lehrmann.”

He said the couple had spent 40 minutes in the ministerial suite together and said “I am convinced … that sexual intercourse did take place.”

Justice Lee found Higgins did not say “no on a loop” but was “more likely than not” passive. As she told a colleague: “It would have been like f---ing a log”.

Lisa Wilkinson with Brittany Higgins.

“Her evidence that she was not fully aware of her surroundings but suddenly became aware of Mr Lehrmann on top of her … struck me forcefully as being credible and having the ring of truth,” he said.

“Ms Higgins was not fully aware of her surroundings when sexual intercourse commenced and did not consent to intercourse when she became aware Mr Lehrmann was on top of her,” Justice Lee said.

Lehrmann was “hell bent on having sex” and “just went ahead willy nilly” he said.

“In his pursuit of gratification, he did not care one way or the other whether Ms Higgins understood or agreed to what was going on,” he said..”Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins.”

Lehrmann, who had missed six calls from his girlfriend, then left Higgins in a state of drunken undress on the sofa and went home like “a cad”. Security officers conducting a welfare check later found her in a state of undress.

Justice Lee said the finding cast Lehrmann’s previous actions in a new light. “Mr Lehrmann behaved disgracefully. He defended the criminal charge on a false basis, lied to police, and then allowed that lie to go uncorrected before the jury,” he said. “He also allowed Higgins, an assault victim, to be cross-examined on a knowingly false premise.”

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