Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins, Justice Michael Lee finds as Lisa Wilkinson, Ten win defamation case

Justice Michael Lee has said Bruce Lehrmann made the mistake of “going back for his hat” after “escaping the lion’s den” as he found the former staffer raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

Justice Lee formally entered the win for Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson and deferred costs.

In a bombshell finding against Mr Lehrmann, Justice Lee found the former staffer was “hell bent on having sex” with Ms Higgins and “didn’t care if she knew what was going on”.

“Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins,” Justice Lee said.

“I hasten to stress this is a finding on the balance of probabilities. These findings should not be misconstrued or mischaracterised as a finding that I can exclude all reasonable hypotheses consistent with innocence.

“As I’ve explained this a substantive difference between the criminal standard of proof and the single standard of proof and as a tribunal effect, I have only to be satisfied that Mr Lehrmann has acted as I have found, and I am not obliged to reach that degree of certainty necessary to support conviction on a criminal charge.”

Justice Lee said Mr Lehrmann made a grave error suing Wilkinson and Ten after he escaped conviction in a criminal trial.

“Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat,” he said.

“He has now been found, by civil standard, to be guilty of a great wrong.”

Justice Lee said Mr Lehrmann would’ve only been up for $20,000 in damages even if he found in his favour.

He found Mr Lehrmann was “indifferent” to whether Ms Higgins was sober enough to consent. Justice Lee earlier found Ms Higgins had consumed 11 drinks over the night and was extremely intoxicated.

“I’m satisfied that it is more likely than not that Mr Lehrmann’s state of mind was such that he was so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins consenting,” he said.

Mr Lehrmann was “hell bent on having sex with a woman he found sexually attractive, had been mutually passionately kissing and touching … and knew had reduced inhibition”, Justice Lee added.

“He did not care one way or the other whether Ms Higgins understood or consented to what was going on.”

Earlier he found there was “no doubt” Mr Lehrmann was identifiable in The Project interview where Brittany Higgins alleged to Lisa Wilkinson she was raped in Parliament House in 2019.

Justice Lee found both Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann were “unreliable historians”.

“I do not think that Mr Lehrmann is a compulsive liar, and some of the untruths he told during his evidence may have been due to carelessness and confusion,” he said.

“But I am satisfied in important respects he told deliberate lies … Mr Lehrmann had no compunction about departing from the truth if he thought it was expedient.

“I would not accept anything he said ... unless it was an admission.”

He described Mr Lehrmann’s account of why he took an intoxicated Ms Higgins back to Parliament House as “risible”.

Justice Lee said Mr Lehrmann’s motives were “obvious”.

“He likely wanted to continue to be intimate with Ms Higgins, put bluntly, he was a 23-year-old male cheating on his girlfriend,” Justice Lee said.

“Having just hooked up with a woman he found sexually attractive. Human experience suggests that what he wants.

“Common sense suggests that it is obvious there was one dominant thought running through the mind of Mr Lehrmann as he was approaching Parliament House, and had nothing to do with French submarine contracts.”

Justice Lee said it was clear Ms Higgins was extremely intoxicated and her account was more believable than Mr Lehrmann’s.

“I’m comfortably satisfied that Ms Higgins was a very drunk 24-year-old woman, and her cognitive abilities were significantly impacted, given the state and … it is highly likely she was prone to drowsiness,” he said.

Justice Lee earlier addressed Ms Higgins’ allegations, saying said her untruths were “quite organised” and differed from 2019 to 2021 - from when she was trying to keep the allegation a secret to the year she decided to go public.

He said in 2019, Ms Higgins’ behaviour in the days after the alleged rape was not “inconsistent with a victim of sexual assault”.

But he described Ms Higgins’ account of the allegation to Wilkinson by 2021 as “troubling”.

Justice Lee said he had “no doubt” Mr Lehrmann was identified in The Project interview where Lisa Wilkinson spoke to Brittany Higgins about the rape allegation.

He said the reporting of Ms Higgins’ rape allegation was “not pursued in an orthodox way”.

Justice Lee also found Network Ten had not acted reasonably in pushing forward with its story in February 2021, especially given it had “strong indications of the unreliability (of Ms Higgins)“.

“The approach to seeking comment from Mr Lehrmann, including the steps taken to contact Mr Lehrmann… If Network Ten wanted to get in contact with Mr Lehrmann, there were ways of ensuring that contact could be achieved. He was not living the life of a hermit. He was working for a public relations company in Sydney,” he told the court.

He was also damning of Wilkinson, saying the TV presenter had a “lack of candour in the witness box” when she was questioned on her mistakes.

“She fully believed what Ms Higgins told her,” Justice Lee said.

But Justice Lee did concede she was “badly let down” by lawyers at Network Ten advising her it would be OK to say a speech at The Logies about the allegation.

He also rejected allegations former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach made about a Seven lawyer suggesting he delete documents Mr Lehrmann had given him.

But he said he was “satisfied” Mr Lehrmann had lied about giving confidential documents to Mr Auerbach and Seven’s Spotlight program.

“In the end, it is fair to conclude Mr Lehrmann was less than candid in his account of the extent of the benefits he received prior to, and in exchange for, participating in the exclusive interview with the Seven network,” he said.

“I am satisfied that Mr Lehrmann made or caused to be made false representations as to the topic of providing access to documents.”

Former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff Fiona Brown was vindicated by Justice Lee, who said she had acted with care.

“She was not someone to speculate or jump to conclusions and I reject any suggestion Ms Higgins expressly said to Ms Brown at either the first or second meeting that she had been raped or sexually assaulted,” he said.

Earlier Justice Lee warned the court his judgment was 324 pages long.

“Given the public interest in the case I will attempt to provide an oral overview of my findings,” he said.

“Alas even this oral summary will be lengthy because the ....case has some complexity.”

Justice Lee acknowledged the “unexpected detours” the case had encountered and said that “the endless controversy has become a cause celebre” for many parties.

“Only one man and one woman know the truth,” he said.

In the seconds before the audio cut out and Justice Lee was forced to adjourn to fix the technical issues, he befittingly described the case as an “omnishambles”.

The ruling brings to an end a defacto rape trial that is just one chapter of a long-running and complex legal saga that has wound in some of Australia’s biggest names, destroyed reputations and livelihoods and is still at the centre of several lawsuits.

Mr Lehrmann was accused by his former colleague Brittany Higgins of raping her on a couch in the office of their boss, then-defence minister Linda Reynolds, after a drunken Friday night out in Canberra in February 2019.

He was charged with rape in April 2021 and has always denied the allegations. A lengthy criminal trial in October 2022 was aborted due to jury misconduct and the ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold in December 2022 said there would not be another trial due to concerns about Ms Higgins’ mental health.

The rape allegation was first aired in February 2021 by news.com.au and by Network 10’s The Project, when a tearful Ms Higgins detailed the alleged assault and claimed a lack of support from her employer in the aftermath.

Although he was not named in the broadcast and subsequent reporting, Mr Lehrmann claimed that he was identifiable as the accused rapist, and sued the ABC, news.com.au, Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, who conducted the interview on The Project.

He later settled his claims with News Corp Australia and the ABC for a combined $445,000 in payouts to cover his legal costs, but pursued The Project through a defamation trial that sparked a maelstrom of headlines.

Justice Lee had been due to hand down his judgement on April 4, but that was delayed when he agreed to hear additional evidence from a disaffected former Channel Seven producer relating to inducements from the producers of current affairs program Spotlight — which paid Mr Lehrmann for exclusive rights to his side of the story.

During the trial, Ten relied on defences of qualified privilege and truth, seeking to establish the “substantial truth” of the main allegations that Ms Higgins had been raped.

In making the case to prove qualified privilege, Ten’s counsel detailed all the editorial decisions made before broadcasting the story and sought to establish Ms Wilkinson and the producers’ journalism credentials.

This is not the final legal matter related to Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann.

Mr Lehrmann will face a committal hearing in June where Queensland magistrate Mark Howden will decide whether or not he will face trial on another sexual assault charge.

Accused of raping a woman twice at Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, in October 2021, he has denied the allegations.

A separate defamation trial also potentially looms on the other side of the country.

Former defence minister Linda Reynolds, for whom Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins worked at the time of the alleged rape, has accused Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz of defamation over a series of social media posts she claims damaged her reputation.

That matter will return to the West Australian Supreme Court in May after mediation talks between the parties collapsed last month.

Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz had flown to Perth for those talks from the provincial French retreat, reportedly purchased in part with the hefty $2.4m compensation payout she received from the Federal Government.

1800 RESPECT - 1800 737 732

Lifeline: 13 11 14