Lehrmann Files Defamation Suit Against Ten, News Corp, and Wilkinson

Bruce Lehrmann leaves the ACT Magistrates Court in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 26, 2022. Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Bruce Lehrmann has launched defamation actions against media outlets Ten Network and News Corp. Australia’s News Life Media for their coverage of his trial over rape allegations.

Journalists Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden were also named in his statement of claim, which was filed in the Federal Court on Feb. 7.

Lehrmann received intense media scrutiny last year after he was accused of raping fellow Liberal Party staff member Brittany Higgins in the office of then-Minister Linda Reynolds.

Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegations while maintaining there was never any sexual interaction between the two.

The trial was delayed several times before the Australia Capital Territory’s (ACT) Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, abandoned the charges in December 2022.

“Whilst the pursuit of justice is essential for both my office and for the community in general, the safety of a complainant in a sexual assault matter must be paramount,” Drumgold said in reference to Higgins’ mental health.

“I have made the difficult decision that it is no longer in the public interest to pursue a prosecution at the risk of the complainant’s life.”

The Claims Against Wilkinson, Maiden, And the Media

In his lawsuit, Lehrmann alleges that Network Ten’s The Project and 10 Play aired content that was defamatory against him on Feb. 15, 2021, which featured an interview with Wilkinson and Higgins.

Maiden, the political editor at News.com.au, which is owned by News Life Media, published two articles on the same day.

Lehrmann says that while he was not directly named in the reports, he was still identifiable.

Some of the false claims he alleges are that he crushed himself against Higgins, bruised her leg, and left her on the couch in a “state of undress.”

Lehrmann also claims the two journalists, Wilkinson and Maiden, had been “fighting” for an exclusive to this story to win the country’s leading journalist award, the Walkley.

He also has claimed that Network Ten and Wilkinson were “recklessly indifferent to the truth or falsity” in how they reported on his trial.

It further accused Wilkinson of “seeking to exploit the false allegations of sexual assault as made by Ms. Higgins for her own personal and professional gain,” according to The Australian newspaper.

The veteran journalist was the reason the Higgins trial was delayed last June after she delivered an acceptance speech at the TV Logie Awards that saw her praise Higgins as a sexual assault survivor.

Brittany Higgins and Lisa Wilkinson attend the Marie Claire International Women's Day breakfast at est. on March 8, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Chief Justice Lucy McCallum of the ACT Supreme Court said Wilkinson delivered the speech despite receiving a “clear and appropriate warning” beforehand, not to mention Higgins.

“The recent publicity does, in my view, change the landscape because of its immediacy, its intensity and its capacity to obliterate the important distinctions between an allegation that remains untested at law and one that has been accepted by a jury giving a true verdict according to the evidence,” she said.

“The public at large is given to believe guilt is established. The importance of the rule of law has been set at nil.”

Meanwhile, Lehrmann is also seeking to sue Maiden, the political editor of news.com.au, over two articles published in 2021.

Higgins has stated her willingness to testify before the courts reposting a Twitter post from December.

“Following recent developments, I feel the need to make it clear, if required, I am willing to defend the truth as a witness in any potential civil cases brought about by Mr. Lehrmann,” she wrote.

Lehrmann is seeking damages and injunctions to prevent further publication of reports on the rape claims.