Judge awards Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young $120,000

Sarah Hanson-Young wins defamation action against David Leyonhjelm, who told her to ‘stop shagging men’.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has won her defamation case against former politician David Leyonhjelm.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has won a defamation action against former politician David Leyonhjelm, after he told her last year to “stop shagging men”.

She has been awarded damages of $120,000.

Senator Hanson-Young launched defamation proceedings against the former Liberal Democrats senator claiming the comments portrayed her as a hypocrite and misandrist, or someone who hates men.

Mr Leyonhjelm said he had made his comments in response to her saying words to the effect that “all men are rapists” during a parliamentary debate about women and violence last year.

However, Federal Court judge Richard White said he did not accept that Senator Hanson-Young had said those words, which meant Mr Leyonhjelm’s defence of justification failed.

Former Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm falsely portrayed Senator Hanson-Young as a hypocrite and misandrist, or someone who hates men. Picture: AAP

Senator Hanson-Young had denied making the “absurd claim”.

On Monday, Senator Hanson-Young said the court had vindicated her decision “to stand up and call out” Mr Leyonhjelm’s hurtful remarks and bad behaviour. She vowed to donate the award to charity.

“When men do the wrong thing, they should apologise,” she said. “Most men do. But when they don’t, they should be called out.”

Justice White said it was likely Mr Leyonhjelm “‘heard’ that which he was predisposed to her by reason of his pre-existing opinion of the applicant as someone who made ‘collectivist’ statements”.

The judge also found that the former Liberal Democrat senator’s defence of statutory qualified privilege failed and that he was “actuated by malice in that he published his claim … to a mass audience with the intention of publicly shaming her”.

Senator Hanson-Young told the Federal Court in May that Mr Leyonhjelm had suggested she was a “slut”.

However, she did not sue him for “slut shaming” her, because it was not defamatory to suggest that a woman had sex with more than one man.

Instead, she said he portrayed her as a misandrist and hypocrite because he claimed she had said words to the effect that all men were rapists but that she nevertheless had sex with them.

However, the judge accepted that some of the harm suffered by Senator Hanson-Young was caused by a “promiscuity imputation”, even though she did not sue on this imputation.

He said he accepted Mr Leyonhjelm’s comments would have led ordinary reasonable people to think less of her and that his conduct warranted an award of aggravated damages.

Mr Leyonhjelm told the Federal Court in May he could not recall the precise wording of the interjection but he heard the sentence begin with the word “women” and end with the words “if men didn’t rape them”.

However, he said he had “no doubt” that the “meaning was very clear”.

Senator Hanson-Young launched defamation proceedings after he followed his comments in the federal upper house with a media statement and three media interviews between June 28 and July 2 last year.

His comments drew condemnation at the time from then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and then Opposition Leader Bill Shorten but he refused to apologise.

On Monday, Senator Hanson-Young said all she “ever wanted was for Mr Leyonhjelm to apologise for his hurtful remarks and bad behaviour”. She said no woman deserved to be bullied and harassed in their workplace.

“It is for every woman and girl who has been told to or made to stay silent in the face of harassment and disrespect that I have taken this legal action,” she said.

Mr Leyonhjelm quit federal politics in January this year to contest the NSW election as he wanted to work on “nanny-state issues”. However, he failed to win an upper house seat at the NSW election, and in April announced he was bowing out of politics.