Bruce Lehrmann is ‘Australia’s most hated man’, his own solicitor has told a court in his defamation suit appeal

Bruce Lehrmann is “the national joke” and “Australia’s most hated man” his solicitor has told a court, as he attempts to overturn a Federal Court ruling that he is a rapist.

In a landmark judgment, Justice Michael Lee in April last year dismissed his multi-million dollar lawsuit against the network and its former star journalist over its reporting of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations on The Project.

Justice Lee found – on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann had raped his then colleague inside Parliament House in March 2019 after a night out drinking in Canberra.

Lehrmann is now seeking to have the findings overturned on appeal, with a three-day hearing before the Full Court of the Federal Court which began on Wednesday morning.

Lehrmann arrived at the court on Wednesday wearing a blue shirt and plaid tie, alongside his solicitor Zali Burrows, who will represent him in court.

Wilkinson will be represented by high-profile silk Sue Chrysanthou SC and Ten will be represented by Dr Matt Collins.

‘The national joke’

In his judgment, Justice Lee found that Lehrmann would have only been awarded $20,000 had he won the trial.

However Burrows says that he should be awarded a substantial amount if he has the findings overturned on appeal.

She has pointed to media coverage of the trial, “social media insults he gets” and other “harassment.

“He’s pretty much become the national joke,” Ms Burrows said.

“And probably, as I previously submitted to this court, he’s probably Australia’s most hated man.”

‘I don’t understand the logic’

Ms Burrows has argued that Justice Lee’s findings were different to the case pleaded by Ten and Wilkinson, and Higgins’ evidence.

She has raised that Ms Higgins said that she was woken by a sharp pain in her thigh - but Lee made no such findings.

Justice Craig Colvin replied: “I don’t understand the logic of this submission.”

She argued that Lehrmann was “taken by surprise” and Judge Lee “didn’t believe” Higgins’ account.

However the judge has pointed out that Lehrmann would have been aware of the allegations against him in the pleadings.

‘Couldn’t afford’

It was anticipated that Lehrmann would be represented in court by barrister Guy Reynolds SC.

However Ms Burrows told the court that Lehrmann could not afford him and she will instead make submissions on his behalf.

“Mr Lehrmann couldn’t afford Mr Reynolds, which we really wanted,” Ms Burrows told the court.

Ms Burrows was told that she did not have to apologise.

The court has heard that Lehrmann was appealing on four grounds.

Ms Burrows argued that the case pleaded and put forward by Ten and Wilkinson was different from Justice Lee’s findings.

‘Procedural fairness’

Justice Lee found: “it is more likely than not” that Lehrmann was “so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins’ consent, and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented.”

In commenting on Lehrmann’s decision to sue after criminal proceedings against him were withdrawn, Justice Lee said: “Having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.”

Lehrmann’s legal team, headed by solicitor Zali Burrows, has claimed that Lehrmann was denied procedural fairness, because Justice Lee’s findings were different to the case put forward by Ten and Wilkinson at trial.

Lehrmann has maintained his innocence and claimed that he had no sexual contact with Higgins inside the office of their then-boss Senator Linda Reynolds.

On his version of events, after entering Reynolds’ office, he went to the left and she went to the right, and he did not see her again that night.

In her evidence given to the court during the trial in late 2023, Ms Higgins said she told Mr Lehrmann “no on a loop”, that she couldn’t scream and that she felt “waterlogged and heavy”.

Justice Lee found that he was not satisfied that Ms Higgins said “no on a loop” and it was more likely than not “that she was passive … during the entirety of the sexual act.”

Lehrmann argues there are inconsistencies between Justice Lee’s findings and the case pleaded by Ten and Wilkinson.

‘Consent’

Lehrmann’s legal team argued that while he was on the witness stand, he should have been questioned further about whether he was reckless about consent.

But that argument has been slammed by Wilkinson’s legal team which described it as “entirely misconceived”.

In their written submissions to the court, they said that during the trial, Lehrmann was probed by Ten’s barrister Dr Matt Collins about whether Ms Higgins had consented to sex.

“Did Ms Higgins at any time consent,” Dr Collins asked at the time.

“I didn’t get consent because I didn’t have sexual intercourse with her,” Lehrmann said.

Ms Wilkinson’s lawyers say in their submission: “At trial Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers were of the view that it was unfair to ask him about consent because he had denied sexual intercourse.

“They now apparently take the view that it was unfair to him to not have asked him specific questions about consent.”

They say it is “difficult to see” how he was “denied natural justice or procedural fairness” because he was not questioned further.

“Given his emphatic denials of sexual intercourse or any similar intimate interaction whatsoever, there was no lack of fairness in not putting to Mr Lehrmann that he was reckless to Ms Higgins’ consent when he had had sexual intercourse with her,” the submissions say.

Lehrmann faced trial in the ACT Supreme Court in 2022 after pleading not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent.

The trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charge and plans for a retrial due to concerns about Ms Higgins’ welfare.

The hearing before Justices Michael Wigney, Justice Craig Colvin and Justice Wendy Abraham continues.

If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Crisis Care Helpline on 1800 199 008.