In 2021, former government employee Brittany Higgins went public with her accusation that her colleague Bruce Lehrmann had raped her in Australia’s Parliament two years earlier. This revelation led to a wave of anger directed at the country’s male-dominated political establishment. The case contributed to the electoral defeat of Australia’s conservative national government. Despite the public outrage, there was no legal resolution to the case for years. However, on Monday, some form of closure was achieved when Mr. Lehrmann lost a civil defamation suit he had filed against the television station that had first aired Ms. Higgins’s account.
The civil case did not take place in a criminal court, and the offense did not have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, the judge ruled based on a balance of probabilities, asserting that it was more likely than not that Mr. Lehrmann had raped Ms. Higgins. Justice Michael Lee of the Australian Federal Court in Sydney described the assault as occurring when Ms. Higgins was inebriated and unaware of her surroundings while Mr. Lehrmann assaulted her. He also emphasized that Mr. Lehrmann disregarded whether Ms. Higgins had the capacity to consent, indicating a lack of concern for her well-being.
The outcome of the defamation trial was seen as a form of validation for Ms. Higgins by many observers. However, some experts, like Professor Sarah Maddison from the University of Melbourne, highlighted the challenges that women face in the justice system when reporting sexual assault. The intense scrutiny and cross-examination that accusers often experience can be extremely difficult to endure. In Ms. Higgins’s case, she had to withstand days of aggressive questioning during a criminal trial that ended in a mistrial due to a juror’s misconduct.
Following the mistrial, Mr. Lehrmann sued Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, seeking redress for the defamation he felt he had suffered. The subsequent verdict in the defamation trial was viewed as somewhat unsatisfactory by some observers. Rachael Burgin, a criminology lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, noted that Mr. Lehrmann faced few consequences for his actions while Ms. Higgins had to endure significant emotional strain without receiving commensurate justice. Despite the legal outcomes, Ms. Wilkinson expressed relief for Australian women following the verdict, emphasizing the broader societal impact of cases like Ms. Higgins’s on the national conversation about women’s rights and sexual assault.
Overall, the resolution of the defamation trial may have provided some closure for Ms. Higgins, but it highlighted the complexities and challenges that women face when reporting sexual assault in Australia. The case served as a stark illustration of the difficulties that accusers often encounter in seeking justice within the legal system. While the outcome may have represented a form of validation for Ms. Higgins, it also underscored the ongoing need for reform and improvement in how sexual assault cases are handled in Australia’s judicial system.
