He went back for his hat

A judgment to remember

'Having escaped the lions' den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.'

Justice Michael Lee with an introduction by Chanel Contos

On 15 April 2024, Justice Michael Lee delivered his judgment in Lehrmann v Network 10. The case centred on proceedings brought by Bruce Lehrmann against journalist Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10 for her 2021 interview with Brittany Higgins. Lehrmann alleged that Wilkinson had defamed him by accusing him of raping Higgins at Parliament House in 2019.

This was a singular case, and the controversy has become a cause célèbre, described by the judge himself as an 'omnishambles'. In his decision, Justice Lee laid out his reasoning in painstaking detail and presented his close-grained reading of the evidence based on its subtleties. Critically for future sexual assault matters, his was a trauma-informed judgment that understood the recollections of an assault victim can be inconsistent, affected by the attempted memory corrections of a traumatised person.

The findings are notable for their valuable insights into future defamation and sexual assault prosecutions, as well as for judicial education and the media. A masterclass of legal dissection, the narrative shows what civil courts can sometimes achieve in a way that criminal courts cannot.