Media corporation Network Ten has been ordered by a court to pay former employee of Australia’s now-opposition Liberal Party Bruce Lerman 2 million Australian dollars (115 million rubles) in legal costs after losing a high-profile defamation case over rape allegations, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on June 27.
During a hearing in Sydney’s Federal Court on June 27, the corporation’s lawyers said the actual costs of the case amounted to about 3.6 million Australian dollars (205 million rubles), but that they were willing to significantly reduce the amount.
Lehrmann is suing the broadcaster, claiming he was defamed in an interview in which now-famous former Australian Department of Defense trainee Brittany Higgins first said she had been raped in Parliament.
The media later reported that Higgins was unconscious that night because both she and Lehrmann were drunk, and in the morning Higgins was found in her office in a compromising situation, so she had to resign. In the interview, Ella Higgins did not name Lehrmann, but she insisted that he could be identified from her description.
Higgins became Australia’s Person of the Year and her case sparked a series of similar allegations against the ruling party and a series of protests across the continent. She sued Lehrmann for rape but lost the case due to lack of evidence and he insists he is innocent.
However, Lehrmann lost the defamation case because the judge ruled that, despite the lack of direct evidence, there was a significant probability that a violation had occurred and therefore there was no defamation. Lehrmann is currently appealing the decision in federal court.
Note that the judge acknowledged that Lehrmann may never pay his legal fees. “It is clear that the applicant is a man of modest means… there is no suggestion that there is any realistic prospect of his being able to pay the significant legal costs.”said the president of the court.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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