FALLOUT FROM THE LEHRMANN DECISION
From an aborted criminal trial to a marathon defamation case which proved the ultimate own goal, “rapist” Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins’ late-night visit to Parliament House in 2019 became a years-long saga tarnishing everyone it touched.
Costs are yet to be decided, but in the end the price isn’t just financial — there’s a toll which has left careers, lives, reputations, friendships, deals, relationships, alliances, agendas and truths in tatters.
There are still court cases to be heard, jobs to be found, reputations to be rescued, lives to be put back together.
What’s next for the main players?
BRUCE LEHRMANN
The judge said it best: Having escaped the lion’s den, Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat. In court, his reputation was mauled.
Broke, unemployed, seemingly homeless, rumoured to be deeply in debt, his reputation shredded, perhaps one of the few sure things ahead for Lehrmann is another court date.
On June 17, 2024 he will face a committal hearing to decide whether or not he will face trial on charges of raping a woman twice in Toowoomba in October 2021. Lehrmann was charged with the two rapes in January 2023. His lawyers have indicated he will plead not guilty.
Lehrmann needs somewhere to live, a job, and possibly further investigation after the court found he shared criminal trial documents he shouldn’t have.
BRITTANY HIGGINS
Her reliability as a witness questioned, thousands of private text messages leaked, the draft of her book now out for public consumption, it’s thought Higgins is overseas.
She and partner Dave Sharaz left Australia to live in rural France earlier this year, and it’s thought they will stay away from Australia as long as they can.
There will be trips back to Australia: she and Sharaz are still staring down defamation proceedings initiated by her former boss, MP Linda Reynolds. Day one of mediation talks in Perth in March ended with Higgins in hospital. The case is next due in court on May 24.
Higgins’ $2.4m compensation payout from the commonwealth continues to be politically scrutinised and questioned. Justice Lee declined to venture into that territory.
He said Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins had both lied, but Lehrmann was the biggest one.
Higgins, he said, “made some allegations that made her a heroine to one group of partisans. When examined forensically (those allegations) have undermined her general credibility”.
But he found her “credible” in her recollections of what happened that night in Parliament House.
LISA WILKINSON
The veteran journalist and presenter’s TV appearances since her Logies speech in 2022 saw the Lehrmann criminal trial delayed have been scant — unless you count footage of her going to and from court.
”Removed” from The Project on full pay in November 2022, there was talk of other projects for Ten. None have materialised.
Despite the win over Lehrmann, Wilkinson is essentially at war with her employer after taking Ten to court to pick up her legal fees after she hired her own lawyer.
Her professional reputation is damaged: if audio capturing her calling then-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds an “idiot” wasn’t enough, the judge slammed her “tendency to dismiss information which did not fit the narrative Higgins was presenting to her”.
She was willing to “double down” on the conspiracy that there was a political cover up.
Justice Lee said she displayed a “lack of candour in the witness box”, and she took Higgins’ claims at face value.
When Ten promoted its 2024 content line-up last year, Wilkinson, 63, was not featured.
Her contract with Ten expires in December, 2024.
NETWORK TEN
Ten has won, but with costs still to be established, there could be a hefty legal bill.
It could have been much, much worse, but Ten is far from unscathed.
The judge said their The Project piece was corrupted
from the beginning by the failure to adequately question Higgins’ story. They never questioned the underlying truth of anything Higgins alleged, he said
In-house lawyer, Tasha Smithies, was slammed for failing to recognise her error in advising Wilkinson she could give the Logies speech.
Their conduct towards Lehrmann fell short of the standard reasonableness, he found.
Going forward, Ten still has the cost of having the star it recruited when she walked out of Nine in 2018 for a reported $1.5 million a year, then resigned for another contract in 2021, not on air, and at war with her employer, while it continues to pay her wage.
The network, owned by Paramount, is cash-strapped and lagging well behind in TV ratings land.
SEVEN NETWORK
After damning court claims about how its current affairs program, Spotlight, was allegedly doing business, Seven is now working to stop the stain spreading through the network.
Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes is reportedly furious.
For now, Spotlight EP Mark Llewellyn is the fall guy. Seven confirmed his exit on Monday morning.
Spotlight itself aired this week – a story on Ozempic — but sources say Spotlight staffers are being kept in the dark over the show’s future.
Seven maintains it “acted appropriately at all times”.
“We do not condone the behaviours described in (Taylor) Auerbach’s allegations,” the network maintains, “They do not reflect the culture of Seven”.
Seven boss James Warburton leaves in June – a move announced before Seven was dragged into the defamation trial. He will be replaced as CEO by chief financial officer, Jeff Howard.
Seven’s Director of News and Public Affairs, Craig McPherson, hasn’t commented since the scandal: Spotlight ultimately comes under his remit. As does Sunrise, which was last week the subject of media reports saying staffers had been investigated over expenses.
Commercial director, legal eagle and Stokes’ right hand man Bruce McWilliams also had a previously-announced June departure date. But last week, amid questioning over the Sunrise claims, he indicated to journalists he too had “left Seven”. A Seven source described McWilliam as a “former employee”.
Meanwhile, Seven staffers continue to fume at claims Spotlight producers were using corporate cards to woo Lehrmann with tens of thousands of dollars, while show budgets are cut, and they are told to watch expenses.
TAYLOR AUERBACH
He was sacked from his position at Sky News as his feud with former mate and Spotlight boss Steve Jackson escalated.
He is looking for work, and perhaps has a future as singer, given videos of him singing karaoke circulating on social media.
He may get a visit from the cops after Tziporah Malkah (formerly Kate Fisher) made an official report to NSW Police after being dragged into the mess. Auerbach and Jackson spent a Christmas Eve at Malkah’s house which saw pictures of a topless Malkah taken during a night of drinking. Auerbach admitted in court to distributing those images. Malkah has spoken to police about them being shared without her consent.
Auerbach may also not be done with Seven: he told the defamation trial he took legal advice to launch a contractual dispute with Seven and issued a concerns notice on March 27.
He also sent a concerns notice, the first step in defamation proceedings, to Lehrmann.
STEVE JACKSON
The former Spotlight supervising producer had resigned to take up a job as NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s media adviser when things went pear-shaped.
Auerbach’s claims about Spotlight and his former best mate saw NSW Police terminate his contract with a $20,000 severance payment before he even set foot in the office. His almost-employer said it needed to be free “external distractions” and tore up the contract.
The payout may prove a cushion for Jackson as he looks for a new role. And a new set of golf clubs.
MARK LLEWELLYN
The former Spotlight executive producer turned in his security pass last week and left Seven, saying on Instagram he was on a long-planned trip
It’s believed he’s hired employment lawyer John Laxon to negotiate an “exit package”.
The writing was on the wall for Llewellyn when Seven’s former commercial director
Bruce McWilliam filed an affidavit saying documents relating to Lehrmann interview negotiations requested under subpoena hadn’t previously been provided to the court because “given Mr Llewellyn’s status as executive producer, I had no reason to doubt his indication that no written or electronic communications with Mr Lehrmann existed”.
Llewellyn had headed the show since 2020: Spotlight was his creation.
It remains to be seen where the man who made a career out of cutting-edge commercial current affairs, a reputation for always getting the story, and whose editing suite skills are revered as almost genius, can next take those skills.
LINDA REYNOLDS
The former defence minister launched legal action in the Supreme Court of Western Australia over a series of social media posts by Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz which Reynolds contends damaged her reputation.
Reynolds says the pair waged a campaign against her after Higgins accused Lehrmann of raping her on the ministerial couch in Parliament House in Canberra.
A closed-door mediation hearing in Perth last month appears to have failed.
The matter is due to return to court on May 24.
Meanwhile, she will be buoyed by the words of Justice Lee, who said suggestions of a political cover-up were an invention of Brittany Higgins.
JUSTICE MICHAEL LEE
Does the High Court beckon for His Honour, the shining light of a grim court marathon?
Justice Lee presided with candour, wry humour, ready retorts, icy observations, rapid-fire summations and laser-like focus.
His willingness to self-deprecatingly speak of himself when reaching for his glasses to read small print on court documents offered rare light relief.
His determination to shed as much “sunlight” as possible on proceedings saw hundreds of pages of documents and exhibits put on the public record, and made the case almost compulsory viewing and reading.
It also made him a YouTube hit, as tens of thousands of people tuned in to watch live stream of the trial.
Those numbers strengthen the case for more live streams of court cases, delivering on the belief that justice must not just be done, it must be seen to be done, by giving access to the court to all with internet coverage.