Key events
Federal court of Australia to livestream the case on YouTube
This blog will cover major developments during the day. In the interests of open justice and due to significant public interest, the federal court is livestreaming this case.
You can watch the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live stream on YouTube here, starting from 9.30am.
How the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case unfolded
In 2021, the Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins made an explosive allegation, claiming she had been raped two years earlier on a minister’s couch in Parliament House.
She made the claim in an interview with news.com.au and a television interview which was aired by Channel Ten’s The Project on 15 February.
The media outlets did not name the alleged rapist, but Higgins’ colleague Bruce Lehrmann later claimed he was identifiable and sued news.com.au, Channel Ten and its presenter Lisa Wilkinson for defamation.
Lehrmann maintains his innocence, and at his criminal trial in 2022 pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
After his criminal trial was aborted in December 2022, prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health. Lehrmann then pursued Ten and Wilkinson in the courts, resulting in a five-week defamation trial which ran until just before Christmas.
Click below to read more about how the story has played out so far.
Good morning
Welcome to live coverage of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial as it reopens to hear fresh evidence.
Justice Michael Lee is set to hear the new evidence today after allowing Channel Ten to present additional evidence in its defence of the defamation case brought by Lehrmann.
The evidence of a new witness – the former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach – will now be tested today, the day the judgment was originally due to be handed down.
To recap: Lehrmann is suing Lisa Wilkinson and her employer Network Ten for an interview with Higgins that was broadcast on The Project in 2021. He alleges the story, which did not name him, defamed him by suggesting he raped Higgins in 2019.
Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and, in a previous criminal trial, pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent. He denied that any sexual activity had occurred.
The criminal trial was aborted after it was discovered a juror had conducted their own research in relation to the case.
In December 2022 prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.
