One of Australia’s most high-profile and polarizing legal sagas has reached its final conclusion, after the High Court of Australia formally rejected former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s last-ditch bid to overturn a devastating defamation ruling against him brought by Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. In the wake of the court’s ruling, Brittany Higgins, the woman at the center of the original allegations, has called the decision a long-awaited end to a years-long period of trauma.
The legal battle traces its origins back to 2019, when Higgins alleged that Lehrmann raped her inside the parliamentary office of their then-boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, following a night of social drinking. The allegations first entered the public spotlight in 2021, when Higgins gave an interview about her experience on Network 10’s flagship current affairs program *The Project*, hosted by Wilkinson. Lehrmann subsequently launched defamation proceedings against the outlet and Wilkinson, claiming the interview had destroyed his reputation.
The first major ruling in the case came in the Federal Court, where Justice Michael Lee delivered a landmark verdict finding that on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann had indeed raped Higgins. Lee wrote in his judgment that Lehrmann was “hellbent on having sex” with Higgins and did not consider whether she consented to the encounter. Lehrmann immediately launched an appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court, but the three justices hearing the appeal not only upheld Lee’s original ruling but strengthened the findings against him: they concluded Lee should have explicitly found Lehrmann had “actual knowledge” that Higgins did not consent, and also reaffirmed the original ruling that Lehrmann lacked credibility as a witness.
Undeterred, Lehrmann launched a final appeal to the High Court, arguing that Lee had improperly conducted independent research outside the scope of the trial and relied on non-legal academic material to reach his verdict. Lawyers for Network 10 pushed back against this claim, noting that Lee only referenced the academic work to contextualize legal arguments, and explicitly stated in his judgment that he would not rely on any information not entered as evidence in the trial. On Thursday, the High Court issued a brief, decisive ruling: “Special leave refused with costs.” The ruling marks the end of all appeal avenues available to Lehrmann.
In a public statement issued immediately after the ruling, Higgins said the High Court’s decision brought “a measure of finality to a long and painful chapter.” She argued that Lehrmann had exploited Australia’s defamation laws to continue silencing her and the journalists who reported her experience, a tactic she said is far too common for survivors of sexual violence. “Defamation claims brought by perpetrators of violence against women retraumatise victim-survivors, who have already endured profound personal violation, and extend the harm we suffer,” she wrote. Higgins called for a national reckoning with Australia’s legal framework, urging reforms to better protect survivors who speak out, safeguard press freedom to report on sexual violence, and prevent the legal system from being misused as a tool of ongoing abuse. Moving forward, she said her focus will be on healing and continuing her advocacy for legal reform that treats survivors with dignity and protection.
The ruling also carries severe financial consequences for Lehrmann. He has been ordered to cover all court costs incurred by Network 10 and Wilkinson throughout the entire proceedings, totaling an estimated AU$2.5 million: roughly AU$2 million from the original Federal Court trial, AU$500,000 from the Full Court appeal, and additional costs for the High Court application. Court records have previously established Lehrmann is currently an unemployed student, leaving him at high risk of bankruptcy. During earlier appeal proceedings, Lehrmann’s solicitor Zali Burrows told the court her client could not raise a AU$200,000 surety requested by Network 10, noting that “the only shot he’d probably ever have in making money is by going on OnlyFans or something silly like that”, arguing the media coverage of the case had left him effectively unemployable.
This long-running legal saga has an additional prior chapter: Lehrmann previously faced a criminal trial for sexual assault charges in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court, but those proceedings were dismissed after juror misconduct forced a mistrial. The charges were ultimately dropped entirely out of concern for Higgins’ mental health and wellbeing. Lehrmann has maintained his consistent denial of all allegations from the start, asserting no sexual contact occurred between him and Higgins on the night in question, and claiming the two separated immediately after entering the parliamentary office and did not interact again that evening.