Five takeaways from Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation case appeal

Bruce Lehrmann outside the federal court in Sydney during his defamation case in 2024. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Bruce Lehrmann has had a resounding loss in the federal court, which dismissed his appeal against a defamation judgment that found on the balance of probabilities that he raped Brittany Higgins.

The judgment on Wednesday from the full bench of the federal court also took aim at some of Justice Michael Lee’s findings about Lehrmann’s knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ lack of consent and the reasonableness of Lisa Wilkinson’s journalism.