Bruce Lehrmann suffers devastating FINAL blow in his legal battle over Brittany Higgins rape saga

Bruce Lehrmann has lost his final bid to overturn the defamation suit that branded him a rapist by the civil standard of proof. 

The High Court on Thursday dismissed Lehrmann’s bid to challenge the outcome from a Federal Court defamation case that found, on the balance of probabilities, that he raped Brittany Higgins in 2019.

‘Special leave refused with costs,’ a judgment published on the High Court website said.

The former political staffer had sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with Higgins on The Project in 2021 during which she claimed she was raped in Parliament House two years prior.

He was not identified in that broadcast, but claimed he was identifiable as Higgins’ rapist.

In the judgement, Justice Michael Lee found Lehrmann was identifiable in the broadcast, but he wasn’t defamed because he likely did rape Higgins in the way she described on television and in court.

He challenged the decision in the appeal court last year, but Justices Michael Wigney, Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham ruled against him.

Lehrmann has now exhausted all avenues of appeal and will either have pay more than $2million worth of legal fees, or declare bankruptcy.

Following the first appeal decision in December, Wilkinson’s defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC said her client was ‘utterly delighted’ by the findings.

‘She’s sorry she couldn’t make it [but] she’s so grateful to the court,’ Ms Chrysanthou said.

‘She’s particularly happy about the court’s acceptance of her intentions in relation to the nature of the assault and she’s looking forward to moving on now.’

Network Ten described the court’s judgement as a ‘triumph for the truth’.

Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows told the media outside court that he was ‘overwhelmed by the decision and I’m really concerned for him’.

Ms Burrows said: ‘We respect what the court has said that everyone should reflect, even the shameless politicians who have used him for an agenda, and everyone else.

‘Bruce’s life has been destroyed. 

She urged the public to ‘remember that, at the heart of the matter, is a young man who was accused of rape in Parliament House. He maintains his innocence’. 

She said her client should serve as an ‘inspiration for those who have been wrongly accused’.

In the judgment, Justice Wigney said Lehrmann’s arguments that he was denied procedural fairness had been dismissed.

‘The Full Court has found that the way in which the primary judge dealt with and determined the proceedings was not procedurally unfair to Mr Lehrmann,’ he said. 

‘The full court has found that the ordinary, reasonable viewer of the broadcast would understand rape as involving sexual intercourse occurring without the consent of the person, and the perpetrator either knowing that the victim is not consenting, or being reckless as to whether they are consenting.

‘Recklessness, in that context, encompasses the perpetrator not caring whether the victim is consenting, either as a conscious lack of regard for whether the person is consenting or complete indifference as to whether they are consenting.’

Lehrmann had argued that Justice Lee made findings that were not advanced by Network Ten and Wilkinson, nor put to him in cross examination.

However, the appeal court found that Justice Lee’s factual findings did fall within the ordinary meaning of rape and rejected Lehrmann’s argument.

‘This was not a case where there were two competing accounts, each of which had been found to lack any credibility,’ Justice Wigney said. 

‘While the primary judge [Justice Lee] made some adverse findings concerning the credibility of Ms Higgins account, His Honour nevertheless accepted key parts of her evidence about the sexual assault.’

The appeal judges also upheld an argument advanced by Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson that Lehrmann was not reckless to Ms Higgins’ consent during the assault, but he knew she did not consent and had sex with her anyway.

Lehrmann was tried for rape in the ACT Supreme Court in 2022. It ended in a mistrial due to juror misconduct. 

The charge was later dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions due to concerns for Higgins’ welfare. 

Lehrmann continues to deny he sexually assaulted Higgins.