Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Australian Parliament House, judge in defamation suit finds
Former Australian government adviser Bruce Lehrmann lost his defamation case on Monday after a judge ruled that he had raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in a Parliament House office.
Mr Lehrmann, 28, a staff member in the Scott Morrison government, had sued Australian media company Network 10 for defamation after it aired an interview with Ms Higgins in 2021 without identifying him by name.
The interview sparked nationwide outrage over discrimination and mistreatment of women in politics, especially after Ms Higgins called out Mr Morrison for “victim blaming".
Mr Lehrmann has denied any wrongdoing.
Justice Michael Lee of Australia's federal court dismissed Mr Lehrmann’s defamation suit after Network 10 defended the story as true.
The judge said he found Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on the lower "balance of probabilities" standard used in civil trials rather than that of "beyond all reasonable doubt" used in criminal trials.
"My conclusion on rape. Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins," he told the court in comments that were livestreamed to tens of thousands of viewers.
"I hasten to stress this is a finding on the balance of probabilities," he added.
The judge found that Mr Lehrmann was indifferent to whether Ms Higgins had consented or not before he raped her in a senator's office at the Parliament House.
Mr Lehrmann was "hellbent" on having sex with Ms Higgins, the judge found.
Judge Lee had earlier slammed Mr Lehrmann for being an unreliable and dishonest witness, 9News reported. "Mr Lehrmann has no compunction from departing from the truth if he thought it was expedient," the judge said.
"I am satisfied that in important respects, he told deliberate lies."
Mr Lehrmann was first accused of raping Ms Higgins in a ministerial office in the capital, Canberra, in 2019.
He faced a criminal trial in 2022, which collapsed after a juror was found conducting individual research into the case, and a proposed retrial was abandoned after prosecutors said it would severely harm Ms Higgins's mental health.
