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A Federal Court judge will hand down a ruling in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten and Lisa Wilkinson within days.
Lehrmann launched defamation proceedings over an episode of The Project in February 2021, during which Brittany Higgins first went public with her rape allegations in an interview with Wilkinson.
Higgins alleged Lehrmann raped her in Parliament in March 2019, when they were both Liberal Party employees.
He was not named in the broadcast, but claimed that friends and colleagues were able to identify him as the alleged rapist. He has always maintained his innocence.
The month-long trial was held before Judge Michael Lee in December, with ruling initially set for 10:15 a.m. on April 4.
However, the matter was reopened last Tuesday after Network Ten successfully argued that there was new evidence from former Channel Seven employee Taylor Auerbach that was not available during the trial.
On Tuesday afternoon, the court announced that the sentence would be handed down at 10:15 a.m. on April 15.
Bruce Lehrmann (pictured outside court) sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson
The defamation claim stemmed from an interview Lisa Wilkinson (pictured) did with Brittany Higgins in February 2021.
Judge Lee will state his reasons orally and post a written ruling on the court’s website.
Ten’s application to reopen the case depended on evidence provided by Mr Auerbach, who was part of the team responsible for securing exclusive interviews with Mr Lehrmann on Channel Seven’s Spotlight programme.
Auerbach was called to the witness stand on Thursday and accused Lehrmann of leaking confidential texts and recordings to Seven ahead of their exclusive interviews, which aired in June and August last year.
The information had originally been collected by the Australian Federal Police during the investigation into Ms Higgins’ rape allegations, before parts of it were broadcast during Mr Lehrmann’s Spotlight interviews.
Evidence obtained by police during an investigation must not be used beyond judicial proceedings, known as the Harman undertaking.
Lehrmann previously denied leaking the material.
Auerbach also claimed Channel Seven paid thousands of dollars to cover Lehrmann’s cocaine, prostitutes and lavish dinners to try to convince him to sign a deal for exclusive interviews.
The network and Mr. Lehrmann have denied those claims.
Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case was reopened on Tuesday due to new evidence from former Seven employee Taylor Auerbach.