Bruce Lehrmann suffers crushing court blow as High Court knocks back appeal on Brittany Higgins defamation findings

Bruce Lehrmann will remain known as a rapist after he lost a last-ditch bid to overturn his high-stakes defamation suit loss to Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. The High Court on Thursday refused Lehrmann special leave to appeal after a Federal Court found, on the balance of probabilities, that he raped former colleague Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House in March 2019. “Special leave refused with costs,” the High Court said in a short judgment published on its website on Thursday. It brings the long-running saga to a close, with Lehrmann having now exhausted all his appeal options. The former Liberal staffer launched the lawsuit against Ten and Ms Wilkinson over Ms Higgins’ interview with The Project in February 2021, during which she alleged she was raped by a colleague inside the office of her then boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, after a night out drinking. In a landmark decision, Justice Michael Lee found that it was more likely than not that Lehrmann was “hell-bent on having sex” with her and “did not care one way or another whether Ms Higgins understood or agreed to what was going on.” Lehrmann appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court. However Justices Michael Wigney, Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham made findings against Lehrmann that went beyond those made by Justice Lee The Full Court of the Federal Court, in its own findings, said Justice Lee should have found Lehrmann had “actual knowledge” that Ms Higgins was not consenting. The court also upheld the “devastating findings” about Lehrmann’s lack of credibility. Lehrmann then appealed to the High Court, arguing Justice Lee conducted his “own research” and relied on non-legal material, including academic papers. Ten argued Justice Lee only referred to those non-legal papers in reference to legal arguments. As well, Justice Lee wrote in his judgment: “I am not to rely on matters not in evidence.” The High Court on Thursday rejected Lehrmann’s application for special leave to appeal. Special leave to appeal is the first step which must be granted before an appeal is allowed to be heard in the High Court. It also means that Lehrmann is facing a massive legal bill for Ten and Wilkinson’s court costs, including $2m for the Federal Court trial and an estimated $500,000 for the Full Court appeal. In his now often-quoted judgment, Justice Lee remarked: “Having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.” That was a reference to the fact that Lehrmann faced trial in the ACT Supreme Court but the proceedings were abandoned due to juror misconduct. The charges were later dropped due to concern for Higgins’ welfare. Lehrmann has persistently denied that any sexual contact with Higgins took place and that when they entered the Defence Minister’s office, he went one way and she went another and did not see her again that night.