The federal court has granted Bruce Lehrmann a stay of the $2m costs order made by Justice Michael Lee, allowing an appeal against the dismissal of his defamation suit against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson to go ahead. Justice Wendy Abraham also dismissed Ten and Wilkinson’s application for Lehrmann to pay a $200,000 security for the costs of the upcoming appeal.
In a short hearing on Wednesday, Abraham ordered Ten to pay the legal costs incurred by Lehrmann in opposing the costs order. In April, Lee found Lehrmann was not defamed by Ten and Wilkinson when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in which she alleged she was raped by a staffer.
In her published reasons, Abraham said Lee’s finding that, on the balance of probabilities, “Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins” “is extremely serious” and the appellate process is a “fundamental aspect of the administration of justice”. She said Lehrmann is on Centrelink benefits and penniless, so Ten has “no basis for thinking that it will retrieve” the $2m it is owed.
Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, argued there was a genuine public interest in allowing an appeal and a risk that if the security of costs were granted, it might abort any appeal. Burrows said her client was too “scared” to attend court since becoming “arguably Australia’s most hated man” and the publicity had “smashed” his mental health.
Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and pleaded not guilty at his criminal trial in the Australian Capital Territory supreme court, which was aborted. Prosecutors did not seek a retrial due to concerns about Higgins’s mental health.
