Bruce Lehrmann launches appeal against ruling that he raped Brittany Higgins

Bruce Lehrmann – the man a judge ruled had raped Brittany Higgins – will appeal that judgment after lodging papers with the Federal Court just hours before the extended deadline.

In April, after a trial spanning months and allegations stretching over years, Justice Michael Lee threw out Lehrmann’s defamation claim against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson – and in the process said he believed he had attacked Ms Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

That ruling, and the mammoth costs order that followed, was seemingly the end of an all-consuming legal process which has also dominated headlines and divided opinions.

But it wasn’t quite.

Having been given an extension of time to decide whether he was going to appeal, the Federal Court today confirmed that appeal was lodged on Friday.

He lodged that appeal against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson on Friday morning.

That intention means Lehrmann arguing again, through a different set of lawyers, that Justice Lee was in error in concluding that Network Ten’s defence of truth had been proved.

In his hundreds of pages of judgment, Justice found the allegations that Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in a Parliament House office were true on the balance of probabilities and that he had been lying all along.

“To remark that Mr Lehrmann was a poor witness is an exercise in understatement,” Justice Lee said.

“Put bluntly, he was a 23-year-old male cheating on his girlfriend, having just ‘hooked up’ with a woman he found sexually attractive.

“I am 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’ consent, and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented.

“Mr Lehrmann was hell-bent on having sex with a woman he found sexually attractive, had been mutually passionately kissing and touching, had encouraged to drink, and knew had reduced inhibitions because she was very drunk.

“Mr Lehrmann behaved disgracefully.

“He defended the criminal charge on a false basis, lied to police, and then allowed that lie to go uncorrected before the jury.

“He has now been found, by the civil standard of proof, to have engaged in a great wrong.”

Ms Higgins was interviewed by Wilkinson for an episode of The Project that aired in February 2021, when she first went public with her claims.

She told Ten that she had been raped in the office of their then- boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, in March 2019, a claim he has always denied.

The show did not name him.

But Lehrmann claimed it was obvious through the information they had aired it was him – a contention that Justice Lee agreed with.

After the majority loss in his case, Lehrmann was ordered to pay multi-million dollars in legal costs for his opponents – while his lawyers had taken the case on a no-win, no fee basis.

It was revealed earlier this week that Lisa Wilkinson’s successful defence costs up to $8000 a day.

The Federal Court was told that the former network Ten star spent just over $1.8 million in defending the case and was hoping to foist the vast amount of the sum on Lehrmann after his spectacular loss.

Retainer agreements the journalist had with prominent silk Sue Chrysanthou SC and her junior, Barry Dean, showed the senior barrister charged $8000 for each full day of the long-running defamation trial.

It is not yet known how much Ten’s legal expenses will be.

Ten will cover any costs of Wilkinson’s that are deemed reasonable and will then pass that bill on to Lehrmann.

On Monday, Justice Lee noted there could be a “limited prospect” that Lehrmann would be able to pay back these amounts.

But he has reportedly managed to hire top media law silk Guy Reynolds SC, to lead a team representing Mr Lehrmann in any appeal.

The revelation also comes the day before Ms Higgins is reportedly going to get married to her fiancee David Sharaz, at a luxury estate in Queensland.