Lisa Wilkinson to seek to prove Brittany Higgins rape claims in legal defence against Bruce Lehrmann defamation case

Lisa Wilkinson will seek to prove the truth of the claim that Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins, as she sets out her legal defence against his defamation claim.

Lisa Wilkinson will deny she was seeking to exploit allegations of sexual assault against Bruce Lehrmann for personal and professional gain, according to documents filed in the Federal Court.

Television presenter Lisa Wilkinson will seek to prove the truth of the claim that former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins, as she sets out her legal defence against his defamation claim.

The Ten Network star will also deny she was seeking to ­exploit allegations of sexual assault against Mr Lehrmann for personal and professional gain, according to documents filed in the Federal Court.

Mr Lehrmann, who has ­consistently denied raping Ms Higgins, launched defamation proceedings against the Ten Network and News Life Media Pty Ltd – an arm of News Corp Australia – in the Federal Court three weeks ago.

Wilkinson, former co-host of The Project, and Samantha Maiden, political editor for news.com.au, are second respondents in the proceedings.

One of the defences Wilkinson will rely upon is that each of the matters he complains about is substantially true: that Ms Higgins did not consent to have sex with Mr Lehrmann; that he knew she did not consent; that he knew she was intoxicated and unable to consent; and that when she woke, she told him to stop, and he did not.

“Lehrmann’s conduct described in the preceding particulars amounted to rape of Higgins in Parliament House in 2019,” she says.

Wilkinson also says in her ­defence she “does not know” that Mr Lehrmann was reasonably identified by any viewer of The Project on February 15, 2021.

Mr Lehrmann had alleged in his statement of claim that The Project interview identified him as having raped Ms Higgins; continued to rape her after she woke and told him to stop; crushed her leg causing a large bruise; and left her on a couch in a state of undress with her dress up around her waist.

Bruce Lehrmann claimed Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten were ‘recklessly indifferent to the truth or falsity’ when they alleged he raped Brittany Higgins . Picture: Gary Ramage

Wilkinson says in response that these imputations “contain gratuitous and irrelevant rhetorical flourish that adds nothing to the defamatory sting of rape”; but she denies all of them.

Mr Lehrmann said Ms Wilkinson and the Ten Network were “recklessly indifferent to the truth or falsity” of the claims when they ­alleged he raped Ms Higgins on the couch in the ministerial office of then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in the early hours of March 23, 2019.

Wilkinson denies this, saying Mr Lehrmann was given multiple opportunities to respond before the broadcast but that he chose not to respond.

Wilkinson says the allegation of recklessness “is baseless, ­unjustified, unsupported by any fact and should be withdrawn”, noting Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers had failed to respond to a request for particulars.

Mr Lehrmann’s statement of claim said it could be inferred that Wilkinson “was seeking to exploit the false allegations of sexual assault as made by Ms Higgins for her own personal and professional gain”, evidenced by Ms Higgins’ claims at the trial that she and news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden were “fighting” over the exclusive.

Brittany Higgins. Picture: Gary Ramage

Wilkinson denies that, pointing out that the claim was withdrawn by Ms Higgins on the witness stand shortly after she made it. She says she did not have any contact with Ms Maiden about Ms Higgins prior to the broadcast nor “at any other relevant time thereafter”. She says that, at no time, did she feel Ms Higgins’ allegations about Mr Lehrmann were false.

Wilkinson recently dumped her lawyers at the Ten Network and hired a fresh legal team to ­defend her, including barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, and Anthony Jefferies, of Gillis Delaney Lawyers, prompting suggestions of a fracturing of her relationship with the network.

Wilkinson says the broadcast was preceded by an intense four-week investigation, during which several senior Ten executives and lawyers fact-checked Ms Higgins’ allegations.

At the conclusion of this ­process Wilkinson “understood that there was a consensus … that Higgins was a credible witness.”

She said she particularly relied on senior news and current affairs executive Peter Meakin, whose input and experience was crucial to the preparation of the program. “Meakin informed Wilkinson that he strongly believed Higgins and that in his view her story was credible,” she says.

Wilkinson says she “closely ­observed Higgins’ demeanour each time she saw her” and ­believed that her allegations ­remained consistent each time she spoke to her.

She says her producer, Angus Llewellyn spoke to police who ­informed him that they were ­concerned that a “cover-up” had occurred in relation to the allegations made by Ms Higgins and that they had been met with “roadblocks” from Parliament House in seeking to obtain information necessary to their investigation.

Wilkinson says she believes Ms Higgins was raped by Mr Lehrmann and that the treatment of the staffer after she reported the rape to Senator Reynolds was “deplorable and an important matter that needed to be brought to the public’s immediate attention”.

Senator Reynolds has denied that Ms Higgins reported the rape to her.

Ms Higgins has stated repeatedly that “if required, I am willing to defend the truth as a witness in any potential civil cases brought about by Mr Lehrmann”.