Network Ten is asking a court to dismiss Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against his defamation defeat if he cannot pay the broadcaster $200,000 in security.
In April, Justice Michael Lee found the former Liberal staffer was not defamed by Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins on 15 February 2021 in which she alleged she was raped by a staffer. Lee found on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019.
In May, the federal court ordered Lehrmann to pay most of Ten’s legal costs because he brought the case on a “knowingly false premise”. Legal experts have estimated the total cost of the trial to be as high as $10m.
As Guardian Australia previously reported, Lehrmann was by all accounts lacking in significant means to pay Ten’s costs.
Lehrmann filed a notice of appeal against the decision at the end of May.
On Friday, Ten’s lawyers filed an application that the court should order Lehrmann to pay $200,000 within 42 days as security for the network’s costs in the appeal. The application also sought for the court to order the appeal proceeding be dismissed if Lehrmann fails to comply with the order.
The court was yet to respond to the application.
Ten filed another document on Friday which said the decision should be affirmed on grounds other than were found in the initial judgment.
Justice Lee found, “it is more likely than not that Mr Lehrmann’s state of mind was such that he was so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins’ consent, and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented.”
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The notice of contention said “the primary judge ought to have found that [Lehrmann] knew that … Higgins did not consent to having sex”.
The notice also claimed that if Lehrmann had won the case he should have been entitled to “no or nominal damages”, contrary to Lee’s finding he would have been entitled to damages of $20,000.
Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and pleaded not guilty at the criminal trial of the matter, which was aborted due to juror misconduct. Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for not proceeding with a retrial.
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