Network Ten will ask the Federal Court of Australia to delay its judgement of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial to allow for new evidence to be submitted.
On Sunday, Network Ten, the respondents of the Lehrmann v Network Ten trial, applied to re-open the case “for the purpose of adducing fresh evidence”.
The legal team for the applicant, former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann, will join Network Ten’s legal team at the Federal Court of Australia at 5pm today to hear Justice Michael Lee’s response to Network Ten’s request.
If approved, the judgement for the trial, which was expected to be delivered this week, could be delayed.
The defamation trial began four months ago in November last year. Here’s a reminder of everything you need to know, plus a breakdown of what’s to come.
Content warning: This article contains references to rape and sexual assault.
What’s the story?
In February 2021, Network Ten aired an exclusive story on its news programme, The Project.
The story included a lengthy interview with former Liberal staffer, Brittany Higgins, who told The Project she was raped by a colleague inside a ministerial office in March 2019. The Project never named Higgins’ alleged perpetrator.
The interview sparked public outrage about parliamentary processes in dealing with accusations of rape and sexual assault, particularly within the Liberal party and in relation to what Higgins claims she went through.
According to Bruce Lehrmann, a former Liberal staffer who worked with Higgins in Senator Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office, The Project’s episode made it clear Higgins’ claims were directed towards him.
This is the allegation Lehrmann has taken Network Ten to the Federal Court of Australia for. He is accusing Network Ten of defaming him during The Project interview in February 2021.
As a reminder, the court’s role here is not to determine whether Lehrmann raped Higgins or not: it is to find whether or not Network Ten defamed Lehrmann in its episode on The Project and in a speech delivered by journalist Lisa Wilkinson at The Logies award ceremony in 2022.
What do we know so far?
Lehrmann has consistently denied Higgins’ allegations that he raped her inside a ministerial suite in March 2019.
Court proceedings in November and December of last year revealed several lies Lehrmann told during a criminal trial in 2022 and in a Spotlight episode with Channel Seven, in relation to the night in question.
For example, Lehrmann lied to his chief-of-staff Fiona Brown, Linda Reynolds and security staff at Parliament House as to why he was at Parliament House with Brittany Higgins that night.
You can read more about Lehrmann’s cross examination and what was revealed here.
Cross examination of Brittany Higgins went for four days, an extraordinary length of time for cross examination. Her evidence regarding her recollection of the night she was allegedly raped was scrutinised by Lehrmann’s legal team, involving questions about her dress, documents in the office and other details.
“As I was being raped, it wasn’t my primary concern where my dress was,” Higgins told Steve Whybrow, Lehrmann’s lawyer, during cross examination.
“I was deeply more concerned about the penis in my vagina that I didn’t want than I was about my dress.”
The court heard from several other witnesses, including The Project producer Angus Llewellyn and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, who conducted the interview for the episode and won a Logies TV award.
In defending her infamous Logies speech, Wilkinson denied suggestions that her conduct contradicted the objective nature of journalism.
“I was defending her courage,” Wilkinson said during cross examination.
What happens next?
The trial wrapped up in late December last year, and a final judgement for the trial was expected to be delivered this week. However, Network Ten’s request to submit “fresh evidence” could delay things further. It is unclear exactly what the “fresh evidence” is.
It usually takes around three months to make a decision once a trial has concluded, according to the Federal Court of Australia, so Network Ten’s application to re-open the case, if accepted, could postpone a final judgement certainly beyond this week.
The application will go before the court today at 5pm.
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