Justice Michael Lee will deliver his judgment in the defamation case Bruce Lehrmann brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court in Sydney on Monday.
The federal court announced the date for the decision on Tuesday, more than three months after the five-week trial ended on 22 December and four days after the final hearing of additional evidence last week.
Lee heard the fresh evidence on Thursday and Friday, delaying the original verdict date of 4 April.
The court heard last week that Lehrmann’s adviser discussed payment of about $200,000 for his participation in an exclusive interview with Seven’s Spotlight program and claims that he gave the program documents he had access to in his criminal trial.
Former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach alleged Lehrmann was reimbursed by the network for money spent on cocaine and sex workers, which were euphemistically invoiced as “pre-production expenses”.
In a live oral summary on Monday, Lee will rule whether the former Liberal staffer was defamed by Wilkinson and Ten when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021 in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House. The full judgment will be published shortly afterwards.
In The Project interview Higgins told Wilkinson she was sexually assaulted on a couch in the office of her then boss and defence industry minister, Linda Reynolds, in the early hours of Saturday 23 March 2019.
The Project did not name Lehrmann as the Liberal staffer at the heart of the allegation but he claims he was identifiable in the broadcast.
If Lee finds Lehrmann was identified, he will then rule on whether the defendants, Ten and Wilkinson, have proven the defence of truth or qualified privilege.
At the Sydney trial, attended almost every day by Lehrmann and Wilkinson, who sat at opposite ends of the courtroom, the applicant denied raping Higgins or having any sexual relations with her at all.
“Did you sexually assault Brittany Higgins in that office on that evening?” his barrister, Steven Whybrow SC, asked.
“Absolutely not,” Lehrmann replied.
Lee, who said he would begin writing the judgment the day after the trial ended, had to consider fresh evidence from last week, as well as more than 15,000 pages of transcript and 1,000 separate exhibits, including hours of CCTV footage, as well as audio and video recordings.
He has already indicated there are “significant credit issues” with Lehrmann and Higgins.
“There are a number of significant differences they’ve given in court, a number of in-court representations and out-of-court representations,” he said during a two-day hearing of a cross-claim for legal fees made by Wilkinson against her employer, Network Ten.
The TV presenter won the cross-claim and Ten was ordered to pay her costs, although the exact amount will be determined after the judgment is delivered.
In the witness box over five days, Lehrmann admitted telling three different stories – including two that were lies – about the reason for his after-hours visit to Parliament House with Higgins after a night out in Canberra.
He told Lee he must have been “mistaken” when he told the Australian federal police he did not have any alcohol in his office. Under cross-examination he conceded he had multiple bottles of whisky and gin at the time.
Lee raised the example of credit in relation to evidence Higgins gave in her personal injury claim for compensation from the commonwealth.
When instructing the parties to address credit in their final submissions, Lee said Higgins gave “a whole series of representations” under oath about liability “which are in contrast to the evidence that she’s given in some respects”.
When the defence presented its case, the court heard Higgins weighed 60kg at the time of the alleged rape and an expert testified that a woman of her size would have likely been five times over the legal limit with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.23% at the time of the alleged rape.
Higgins was in the witness box for four days during which she became emotional as she recounted in graphic detail her alleged rape, as well as the deterioration of her relationship with her employer after she reported the incident.
The three legal teams made their final submissions last month: Matt Collins KC for Ten; Sue Chrysanthou SC for Wilkinson and Whybrow for Lehrmann.
Lehrmann maintains his innocence. In a criminal trial in 2022 he pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
In December of that year prosecutors dropped charges against him for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.
