‘Compromised’: Bruce Lehrmann sets sights on Australia’s highest court in bid to overturn defamation loss
Bruce Lehrmann appealed to Australia’s highest court to overturn his libel case loss.
Mr. Lehrmann sued Network 10 and its high-profile former journalist, Lisa Wilkinson, over Ms. Higgins’ bombshell interview on The Project in February 2021; In this interview, she claimed that she was raped by a colleague in the Parliament House.
The former Liberal staffer suffered a heavy defeat in the Federal Court when Judge Michael Lee upheld Ten’s truth defense and found on the balance of probabilities that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins following a night out drinking with colleagues in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
He appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Circuit and Judges Michael Wigney, Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham ruled in favor of Wilkinson and Ten last year.
They upheld Judge Lee’s ruling, which found Mr Lehrmann knew Ms Higgins was drunk and did not consent when they returned to the office of their then boss, Defense Minister Linda Reynolds.
Mr Lehrmann has now applied for special leave to appeal the Full Court’s findings in the High Court of Australia.
According to court documents filed by Gabriella Rubagotti and Bryanna Workman on Lehrmann’s behalf, the Full Court made errors in upholding Judge Lee’s decision, including claims that its findings were “compromised.”
More to come.
