Bruce Lehrmann suing the ABC over the National Press Club speech

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann is suing the ABC over its broadcast of the joint address by Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club.

Former Liberal political adviser Bruce Lehrmann is suing the ABC for defamation over its broadcast of a joint address by Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame.

He claims the live broadcast of the address to National Press Club on February 9, 2022 defamed him by implying he raped Ms Higgins on a couch at Parliament House in March 2019.

Mr Lehrmann has repeatedly denied the allegations and the criminal charge against him was dropped after a trial in the ACT was abandoned due to juror misconduct.

Bruce Lehrmann is suing the ABC over its broadcast of an address to the National Press Club. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Flavio Brancaleone

The former political staffer alleged the ABC was “recklessly indifferent to the truth or falsity of the imputation” when it live-streamed the address and then published the full video to the ABC News YouTube channel.

His statement of claim lodged on Wednesday claims he suffered “hurt and harm” as a result of the publications, which are estimated to have been viewed by more than 276,000 people.

Mr Lehrmann was not named in Ms Higgins’ address to the National Press Club, but he claims he was identifiable due to earlier articles which named him as the accused sexual assailant.

He claims her “extremely serious” imputations had the “inherent tendency to cause serious harm” and should not have been broadcast live by the ABC.

Brittany Higgins spoke about the allegations she was raped at Parliament House. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

The broadcast could have been delayed to allow for the removal of “potentially defamatory statements”, according to Mr Lehrmann’s statement of claim.

The statement of claim alleges the ABC broadcasts couple with the prominence of the rape allegations meant “a significant number of persons would, and it is inferred did, believe the applicant has as a matter of fact raped Ms Higgins”.

Publishing the joint address while criminal proceedings were ongoing was “an apparent contemptuous attempt to prejudice the jury”, according to Mr Lehrmann.

Before launching civil proceedings, Mr Lehrmann had applied for a permanent stay on criminal proceedings against him in April 2022, claiming the volume of publicity given to Ms Higgins’ claims, including the broadcast of the address, had made it impossible to guarantee him a fair jury trial.

However, Supreme Court Justice Lucy Macallum determined at the time that the jury could be appropriately directed to ignore such material on the internet.

Mr Lehrmann is already pursuing legal action against two other major Australian media companies and journalists over their two-year-old coverage of Ms Higgins’ allegations.

2021 Australian of the year Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins addressed the National Press Club on February 9, 2022. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Earlier this year, he launched a lawsuit against Network Ten and its journalist Lisa Wilkinson as well as News Corp’s News Life Media, publisher of the website news.com.au, and its journalist Samantha Maiden.

Mr Lehrmann was not named in the reports at the time but claims he was nevertheless identified by the media companies.

Both media companies are currently fighting to have the case thrown out of court because they argue Mr Lehrmann did not file the action within the 12-month deadline.