Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation Leave a comment on Bruce fought the law and the law won
Bruce Lehrmann bragged about how he fought the law and Bruce won. In fact, the law won.
Today his many lies finally caught up with him. Justice Michael Lee, handing down his decision today for the defendants Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson in their landmark defamation case against Lehrmann, found he had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.
Justice Lee said that he was satisfied that Higgins was very drunk, that Lehrmann knew of her condition and that Lehrmann was recklessly indifferent to Higgins’ state of mind of whether Higgins was consenting.
That finding meant that the truth defence had been made out and the defendants have escaped liability for The Project episode that broke Higgins’ story and the subsequent Logies speech that postponed Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
Justice Lee made devastating findings against the credibility of Lehrmann, including that he told the following lies:
→ Whether he found Higgins to be attractive – what he said in Court was inconsistent with what he said on Seven’s Spotlight
→ Whether he paid for her drinks, and his explanation for why spent the evening in question with her.
→ he denied any intimacy occurred at the 88mbh bar. This was a misrepresentation to the AFP. There was evidence by another witness or a passionate kiss, and the taking of selfies together which Lee J accepted.
– his claim that his relationship with his then girlfriend morally prohibited him from having sexual relations with Higgins.
→ false evidence about when he was reprimanded by Senator Reynolds, the circumstances he came to be accompanied with Ms Higgins and his representations to Fiona Brown, who was Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff.
Justice Lee found Lehrmann “has no compunction from departing from the truth if he found it to be expedient”. Whilst Brittany Higgins was also an ‘unreliable historian’, the untruths she told were found to be of a different category.
“Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat.” – Justice Lee
We confess that we did not expect the truth defence to be successful after the evidence revealed significant credibility issues on both sides.
Bruce Lehrmann’s reputation has now been destroyed by this grave finding. The only way to salvage it would be by appealing. He also has to face another criminal rape case in Toowoomba.
Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 1 Comment on Justice Michael Lee says ‘real credit issues’ in Lehrmann defamation trial
It’s the saga about an alleged rape that never ends.
After a jury in a criminal rape trial was aborted after juror misconduct, the subsequent inquiry which revealed prosecutorial misconduct and the resignation of the ACT Director of Prosecutions, we have the sequel to the rape trial.
That sequel is a civil defamation case by Bruce Lehrmann, who was the defendant in the rape trial, brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for an episode on The Project about the alleged rape.
Continue reading “Justice Michael Lee says ‘real credit issues’ in Lehrmann defamation trial”
Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 2 Comments on Ben Roberts-Smith appeals defamation defeat
Highly decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG sued on 16 media stories that collectively alleged among other things that he had murdered civilians in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against a woman in the Federal Court of Australia.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 3 Comments on Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case on contextual truth
Highly decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG was the subject of 16 media stories that collectively alleged among other things that he had murdered civilians in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against a woman.
Continue reading “Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case on contextual truth”
Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law, Defamation, Legal profession 6 Comments on Debacle after Bruce Lehrmann charges dropped
Bruce Lehrmann, the former parliamentary political staffer who was accused of raping a colleague named Brittany Higgins at Parliament House has had all charges dropped again him.
This occurred after the trial had to be postponed because Lisa Wilkinson gave a speech at The Logie Awards, and when the trial finally took place, the jury had to be discharged because of juror misconduct.
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Author adminPosted on Categories civil litigation, Defamation 1 Comment on Christian Porter loses appeal from restraint on Sue Chrysanthou SC
Former Attorney General Christian Porter has lost his appeal of a restraint against Defamation specialist Sue Chrysanthou SC representing him in his claim against the ABC.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation Leave a comment on Depp-Heard verdict’s implications on #metoo
Johnny Depp was largely successful in his defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard after a six-week trial.
What are the implications of this result on the #metoo movement which insisted that we should believe female accusers? The jury in the Depp-Heard case plainly rejected her evidence.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 2 Comments on Peter Dutton wins defamation case
On 25 February 2021 at 11.51 pm, refugee activist Shane Bazzi published a tweet on Twitter containing the words:
“Peter Dutton is a rape apologist.”
This tweet contained a link to an article published online in The Guardian Newspaper on 20 June 2019. The link in that tweet showed a large photograph of Mr Dutton, the name “The Guardian” and the following words:
“Peter Dutton says women using rape and abortion claims as ploy to ge…
Home Affairs minister says ‘some people are trying it on’ in an attempt to get to Australia from refugee centres on Nauru.”
The first of these lines comprised part of the headline to The Guardian article. The second constituted the whole of the first sentence in the article.
Continue reading “Peter Dutton wins defamation case”
Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 3 Comments on The perils of social media for twits
The laws of defamation apply to social media as much as they apply anywhere else:
A FORMER high school student has been ordered to pay $105,000 to a teacher for writing defamatory remarks about her on social media in what is believed to be Australia’s first Twitter defamation case to go to trial.
Former Orange High School student Andrew Farley, 20, made “false allegations” about music teacher Christine Mickle on Twitter and Facebook in 2012, a year after he had left school.
Mr Farley, who had never been taught by Ms Mickle, seemed to bear a grudge against the 58-year-old based on a belief that she had something to do with his father, also a teacher, leaving the school, District Court Judge Michael Elkaim said in his ruling.
“There is absolutely no evidence to substantiate that belief,” Judge Elkaim said. “The effect of the publication on the plaintiff was devastating.’’
Anyone who frequents Twitter (or other social media) on a regular basis would know that false and defamatory assertions are often made about people. In some ways it’s a surprise that it’s taken this long for such a case to result in an award of damages in Australia.
Another twitter defamation case that went to court is that of Liberal pollsters Mark Textor and Lyndon Crosby against former Labor MP Mike Kelly for a tweet Kelly published about push polling.
When people go on social media to rant, they would be well advised to be careful that they do not open themselves to liability for defamation. A right to rant is not the same as a right to defame.
Author adminPosted on Categories civil litigation, Defamation, litigation, Negligence, Personal Injury 4 Comments on Time to sue: The law of limitation periods
Are there time limits on when you can sue? Read about what limitation periods are, and how they work.
Limitation periods in the law impose time limits within which types of civil proceedings should ordinarily be commenced. In commercial litigation, statutes of limitations impose most of the limitation periods. In Queensland, the statute of limitations is the Limitation of Actions Act 1974.
There are other time limits imposed under the law, but this article concerns time limits imposed under statutes of limitations, particularly the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld).
Continue reading “Time to sue: The law of limitation periods”
