Defamation

A judge has found that former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in ex-defence minister Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office, saying he was “indifferent to her consent”, despite finding both witnesses had credit issues. 

A judge has criticised a Network Ten solicitor who signed off on former presenter Lisa Wilkinson’s Logies speech, given on the eve Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial, saying she had failed to appreciate her duties to the court.

Attacks at trial on the credibility of Bruce Lehrmann hit their target, but it’s still his case to lose on Monday morning, when judgment is delivered on his defamation claims against Ten. Throughout the case the network has borne the burden of proving Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation was true, and it is the very seriousness of that allegation that made the task harder.

A master chronology of the events on the night Bruce Lerhmann allegedly raped former policital staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House reveals federal police had concerns that Higgins may have been drugged.

A judge has questioned the relevance of an ex-Seven producer’s “sordid” evidence that the network rewarded him after using company funds to buy sex workers for the accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann, saying both sides had made strong arguments against his and Brittany Higgins’ credibility. 

A judge hearing Bruce Lehrmann’s reopened defamation trial has expressed concern about evidence regarding non-parties to the lawsuit, including a solicitor who is said to have acted for Seven, saying “allegations are being thrown around like a gatling gun”.  

A former Seven producer has given fresh evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial that he was alarmed when the accused rapist purchased cocaine and sex workers and agreed to give an interview to Spotlight as long as he was not asked about the night at the centre of the allegations.

A judge presiding over a defamation case by Bruce Lehrmann on Thursday asked lawyers for the Seven Network to explain why it had taken eight months to hand over communications with the accused rapist in answer to a subpoena by Ten. 

Network Ten has won a bid to reopen its defence in a defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann, just two days before a judge was set to deliver his decision, after a former producer at Seven claimed the accused rapist lied about leaking thousands of pages of text messages between Brittany Higgins and her former partner. 

Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto will face three defamation cases at the same time — one by former Liberal MP Moira Deeming and two by anti-trans activists over last year’s ‘’Let Women Speak’ rally, which was crashed by neo-Nazis.