Bruce Lehrmann bragged about how he fought the law and Bruce won. In fact, the law won.
Today his many lies finally caught up with him. Justice Michael Lee, handing down his decision today for the defendants Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson in their landmark defamation case against Lehrmann, found he had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.
Justice Lee said that he was satisfied that Higgins was very drunk, that Lehrmann knew of her condition and that Lehrmann was recklessly indifferent to Higgins’ state of mind of whether Higgins was consenting.
That finding meant that the truth defence had been made out and the defendants have escaped liability for The Project episode that broke Higgins’ story and the subsequent Logies speech that postponed Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
Justice Lee made devastating findings against the credibility of Lehrmann, including that he told the following lies:
→ Whether he found Higgins to be attractive – what he said in Court was inconsistent with what he said on Seven’s Spotlight
→ Whether he paid for her drinks, and his explanation for why spent the evening in question with her.
→ he denied any intimacy occurred at the 88mbh bar. This was a misrepresentation to the AFP. There was evidence by another witness or a passionate kiss, and the taking of selfies together which Lee J accepted.
– his claim that his relationship with his then girlfriend morally prohibited him from having sexual relations with Higgins.
→ false evidence about when he was reprimanded by Senator Reynolds, the circumstances he came to be accompanied with Ms Higgins and his representations to Fiona Brown, who was Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff.
Justice Lee found Lehrmann “has no compunction from departing from the truth if he found it to be expedient”. Whilst Brittany Higgins was also an ‘unreliable historian’, the untruths she told were found to be of a different category.
“Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat.” – Justice Lee
We confess that we did not expect the truth defence to be successful after the evidence revealed significant credibility issues on both sides.
Bruce Lehrmann’s reputation has now been destroyed by this grave finding. The only way to salvage it would be by appealing. He also has to face another criminal rape case in Toowoomba.
