Lee found Ten and Wilkinson failed to establish their qualified privilege defence, hoping to prove they acted reasonably in airing the rape claims in an interview with Higgins on The Project in 2021. Lehrmann was not named during the broadcast; however, Lee said he was identifiable. Ten ultimately did not need to rely on the qualified privilege defence after the judge found Lehrmann had raped Higgins.

The rape emerged to be a “minor theme” of the broadcast, Lee said, with the allegation of a cover-up the “major motif”.

The judge also criticised the network’s due diligence before airing the allegations, including the “inadequate” efforts by Wilkinson and The Project producer Angus Llewellyn to seek proper comment from Lehrmann.

“If Network Ten wanted to get in contact with Mr Lehrmann, there were ways of ensuring that contact could be achieved. He was not living the life of a hermit – he was working for a public company in Sydney. The approach lacked reasonableness in the circumstances of the publication of an allegation of such seriousness,” the ruling says.

While accepting Lee’s judgment, one of Ten’s solicitors, Justin Quill, said outside court that there must be more confidence in juries and that the implication juries would be so influenced by a Logies speech doesn’t “pass muster”.

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He said he was confident the network would get costs back from Lehrmann and any appeal by Lehrmann would be dismissed.

In a statement, Network Ten said the judgment was “a triumph for truth” and vindication for Higgins “who gave a voice to women across the nation”.

While still considering the 324-page ruling, the spokesperson said it was clear Australia’s defamation laws remain highly restrictive.

“It was always our obligation to inform the public of these important social and political matters notwithstanding the challenges presented by these laws and today’s judgment vindicates the telling of Brittany’s story.”

In a statement outside the Federal Court, Wilkinson said: “The Federal Court has found that I published a true story about a rape in a federal minister’s office at Parliament House in March of 2019.”

Meanwhile, Lee was “comfortably satisfied” that Lehrmann misled the court while providing evidence, asserting that he did not give documents to Seven Network in the process of his interviews, as alleged by former employee Taylor Auerbach.

Seven confirmed on Monday morning Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn had left the network. In a statement, Llewellyn said he resigned last week.

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