Bruce Lehrmann files defamation proceedings against Ten, News Corp

Former federal Liberal political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has filed defamation proceedings against Network Ten and News Corp over their coverage of rape allegations made by his former colleague Brittany Higgins.

Lawyers for Lehrmann filed statements of claim in both cases on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Federal Court’s online filing system. The lawsuits name Network Ten and News Life Media, the News Corp company behind News.com.au, as respondents in the proceedings.

Lehrmann is being represented by Sydney defamation law firm Mark O’Brien Legal.

Bruce Lehrmann outside the ACT Supreme Court in October last year.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Lehrmann stood trial in the ACT Supreme Court last year on one charge of sexual intercourse without consent. He pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Higgins in the ministerial office of the pair’s former boss, Coalition senator Linda Reynolds, in March 2019.

The trial was aborted in October due to juror misconduct and the charges were later dropped altogether amid concerns about Higgins’ mental health.

ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, SC, said in December that he had “received really compelling evidence from medical experts that the ongoing trauma associated with this prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk for the life of the complainant”.

“The evidence makes it clear that this is not limited to the harm of giving evidence in a witness box [and] rather applies whether or not the complainant is required to enter a witness box during a retrial,” Drumgold said.

The Federal Court has yet to release documents in each defamation matter.

The ACT government announced a public inquiry last year into authorities’ handling of Lehrmann’s abandoned criminal trial, following reports that Drumgold complained that police had tried to pressure him not to prosecute Lehrmann.

On December 8, the Australian Federal Police Association issued a statement hitting out at “desperate attempts to smear” the AFP.

On February 1, the ACT government announced that Walter Sofronoff, KC, a former president of the Queensland Court of Appeal and Queensland solicitor-general, would chair the board of inquiry into “the conduct of criminal justice agencies” involved in the Lehrmann trial.

The board is to report to the ACT chief minister by June 30. It has wide terms of reference, including to examine “whether any police officers failed to act in accordance with their duties or acted in breach of their duties” in investigating Higgins’ allegations concerning Lehrmann, as well as in dealing with the DPP and Lehrmann’s lawyers.

It will also consider “whether the director of public prosecutions failed to act in accordance with his duties or acted in breach of his duties in making his decisions to commence, to continue and to discontinue criminal proceedings against Mr Lehrmann”.

Further, it will examine “the circumstances around, and decisions which led to the public release of the ACT director of public prosecutions’ letter to the chief police officer of ACT Policing dated 1 November 2022”.

with Angus Thompson