Key events
Both Lehrmann and Higgins ‘unreliable historians’, Lee says
Lee said only two people know what happened behind doors and both Lehrmann and Higgins are “unreliable historians”.
“People give unreliable evidence for various reasons and distinguishing between the false memory and the lie can often be difficult,” he said.
Lee is explaining why this case has been so controversial.
“Some jumped to predetermined conclusions because they are disposed to be sceptical about complaints of sexual assault, and hold stereotype beliefs about the expected behaviour of rape victims, described by social scientists as rape myths,” he said.
“Others say they believe all women, surrendering their critical faculties by embracing and acting upon a slogan arising out of the #MeToo movement. Some have a predetermined view.”
The technical issues have been fixed and we are up and running. There were tens of thousands of people watching the decision on YouTube when it fell silent.
Justice Lee was just a few minutes into his decision, and will now resume.
“It is a singular case,” he said earlier. “The underlying controversy has become a cause celebre.
More from our reporter Kate Lyons in court:
Right before he rose and adjourned, Justice Lee said he had “been alerted to the fact that the court is muted”. The screens in the courtroom still say “microphones muted”, though clearly it is not as simple an issue as hitting “unmute” or we’d be back on now.
The (presumed) IT guy, whose name I have gleaned is Michael, has been called out of the courtroom by the judge’s associate. Hopefully, they’re back there somewhere rebooting something, so that court can resume soon. One imagines this is a very stressful time for a long delay for Lehrmann, Wilkinson and the other parties to the judgment.
“It appears the technical issues have been fixed, so we will be recommencing shortly,” says one of the associates.
The court muted itself on the live stream of the Lehrmann judgment. You can see the mute in the bottom left hand corner
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) April 15, 2024
Throughout the five-week trial and the additional hearings, we did not have a technical issue this serious. Given Justice Lee’s insistence on open justice, having the live feed go silent is not ideal.
Here’s what our reporter Kate Lyons is seeing in court:
A man who, were I a betting woman, I would wager is from the court’s IT team, has entered the courtroom and is now having a tinker with the one of the computers here. He’s on the phone, pressing some buttons on the offending computer as he presumably is trying to sort out the court’s technical issues. The judge’s associates have been in and out of the room. The lawyers all look very relaxed, and are chatting amongst themselves as we wait for the judge to come back in.
The court has adjourned while the sound on the live feed is fixed. There are still more 23,000 people watching the live stream.
Lee said the full judgment will be published on the federal court website immediately after the pronouncement of orders “but given the public interest in the case, I intend to attempt to provide an oral overview of my findings and the reasons for the making of the orders”.
Lee said the case is so complex that even his summary will be lengthy.
Lee acknowledged the “unexpected detours” and the collateral damage it has occasioned.
“It might be more fitting to describe it as an omnishambles,” he said.
Justice Lee: ‘Only one man and one woman know the truth, with certitude, of what happened’
Kate Lyons
Justice Lee says that the case is a “Rorschach test” for people, with people clinging to their sense of what the truth is of what happened.
This case is not as straightfoward as some observers might at first think, he says.
“Only one man and one woman know the truth, with certitude, of what happened.”
Lee said that while there are differing accounts of what happened, there can be different reasons for these differences and “distinguishing between false memory and deceit is difficult”.
Justice Lee says his judgment is 324 pages long. He says he will give a verbal summary because of the public interest.
The sound has dropped out on the live feed.
