A ‘hapless’ Bumble date, Qing dynasty ceramics and the Algonquin round table: the best lines from the Bruce Lehrmann verdict

Justice Michael Lee spent two-and-ahalf hours delivering an oral summary of his 324-page judgment in the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann against Channel Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.

The judgment was incredibly nuanced, with Lee seeking to draw “fine distinctions based upon the subtleties of the evidence”. But it was also characterised by Lee’s penchant for a creatively turned phrase, drawing laughter from the gallery at a number of points.

The full judgment is online here – or read some of the judge’s finest rhetorical flourishes below.

Omnishambles

“It is a singular case,” said Lee in his opening. “Indeed, given its unexpected detours and the collateral damage it has occasioned, it might be more fitting to describe it as an omnishambles.”

About a minute later, the audio from the courtroom cut out, meaning that the roughly 25,000 people watching the livestream of the judgment at that point had no clue what was going on. When the audio was fixed about half an hour later, Lee resumed the bench.

“I think I got up to the point where I said ‘omnishambles’,” he said wryly.

On Lehrmann’s credibility

Almost as soon as he began his judgment, Lee made it clear what he thought about Lehrmann’s truthfulness.

Later, in recounting comments that Lehrmann made to Lauren Gain, who had been at the Dock bar with Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins on the night Lehrmann allegedly raped Higgins, Lee said:

On Lehrmann finding the whole courtroom attractive

The first of Lee’s comments to get an outright laugh from the public gallery was when he was discussing Lehrmann’s evidence about whether he found Higgins attractive. In his 2023 Spotlight interview, Lehrmann denied thinking Higgins was attractive, despite other comments he had made about Higgins in 2019. Lee said, with a raised eyebrow:

There was a loud chuckle from the room that was promptly shushed.

On Higgins’ autobiography

Lee addressed Lehrmann’s submission that the draft manuscript of Higgins’ book “was full of inaccuracies and inconsistencies with her evidence”, by saying: “As to the book, as the saying goes, an autobiography usually reveals nothing bad about its writer except his memory.”

On Higgins’ ‘hapless’ Bumble date

Lee sought to restore some dignity to the man Higgins met on the dating app Bumble and who she invited to come to the bar on the night of the alleged rape.

He later said:

On the chat at the Dock Bar between the staffers On distractions in the background of the CCTV from The Dock On whether Lehrmann continued drinking in the ministerial suite

And more on the topic of whisky:

Some fatherly advice

At one point Lee cited the wisdom that “‘nothing good happens after two o’clock in the morning’ … Here too there was a combination of drink and the wee hours, and it led, on any view of it, to trouble.”

On Lehrmann’s keys

Lee roasted Lehrmann over his claim that he went back to Parliament House after being out drinking with Higgins and others in order to retrieve his keys.

On Lehrmann’s work habits

Among Lehrmann’s other claims about what he was doing in the minister’s office at around 2am was that he needed to “note up briefs” for the minister. Lee rejected this claim with savagery:

On the security guard’s assessment of Lehrmann’s and Higgins’ drunkenness On Lehrmann’s decision to bring the defamation case, after his criminal trial was aborted