Bruce Lehrmann has launched appeal proceedings against the scathing defamation judgment which ruled he had, on the balance of probabilities, raped Brittany Higgins.
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The Federal Court confirmed Mr Lehrmann lodged a notice of appeal at 8.32am on Friday morning, hours before his afternoon deadline. Details about the appeal grounds are still unknown.
Last month, Justice Michael Lee found, to the civil standard of proof, Mr Lehrmann sexually assaulted Ms Higgins inside a Parliament House ministerial office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
The court later heard Mr Lehrmann had briefed new senior counsel to explore the possibility of an appeal and he was granted a time extension to consider commencing those proceedings.
An appeal would be heard by a full bench of three judges.
![Bruce Lehrmann outside the Federal Court. Picture AAP Bruce Lehrmann outside the Federal Court. Picture AAP](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/171518670/034b7da7-e996-4a2d-9ffb-baac0952e689.jpg/r494_253_5261_3094_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Lehrmann has also been ordered to pay millions in costs after Justice Lee ruled he had to pick up the large majority of Ten and Ms Wilkinson's legal bill from the proceedings.
That exact figure is still unknown and Mr Lehrmann's financial capability to follow the order remains to be seen.
Ten can file an application to secure costs before an appeal goes ahead in case Mr Lehrmann is unsuccessful.
Justice Lee's judgment
"Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins," Justice Lee said last month as tens of thousands of people online watched him deliver a historic judgment.
![Journalist Lisa Wilkinson, right, with barrister Sue Chrysanthou following Justice Lee's judgment. Picture AAP Journalist Lisa Wilkinson, right, with barrister Sue Chrysanthou following Justice Lee's judgment. Picture AAP](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/171518670/2b3e2c40-3e5f-4859-b2be-8142e0a3188e.jpg/r0_253_6000_3640_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I am satisfied that it is more likely than not that Mr Lehrmann's state of mind was such that he was so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins' consent and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented."
That conclusion, Justice Lee said, was consistent with his finding that intercourse started when Ms Higgins was "not fully cognitively aware of what was happening".
Justice Lee made scathing findings against Mr Lehrmann's repeated denials of having sexual interest in his colleague, being intimate with her earlier in the night, and trying to get her drunk.
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The judge described the man as "hell-bent" on having sex with a woman he found attractive and knew had reduced inhibitions due to her intoxication.
The civil finding does not amount to criminal guilt.
Mr Lehrmann's ACT criminal trial was aborted in 2022 due to juror misconduct, with the charge of sexual assault without consent levelled at him later dropped.
![Justice Michael Lee delivering a costs judgment in the case. Picture screenshot Justice Michael Lee delivering a costs judgment in the case. Picture screenshot](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/171518670/68be4838-c3b9-48dd-91e2-e5213cebecde.png/r563_316_3840_2159_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
As well as describing Mr Lehrmann as a "compulsive liar", Justice Lee said Ms Higgins was a "complex and, in several respects, unsatisfactory witness".
While Ten and Ms Wilkinson successfully defended the defamation suit brought against them on a substantial truth defence, they did not walk away unscathed.
The judge found the journalists had not acted reasonably in researching and publishing Ms Higgins' rape allegation on The Project, and made several grave errors along the way.