Parliament rape claim was true, judge rules in case that gripped Australia

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Parliament rape claim was true, judge rules in case that gripped Australia
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Defamation trial judge satisfied, on balance of probabilities, that Bruce Lehrmann raped colleague Brittany Higgins in 2019

For years, the Australian public has been fascinated by a rape allegation in Parliament House that embroiled government ministers, media personalities and political staff in multiple complicated legal and civil battles.when Justice Michael Lee declared he was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Bruce Lehrmann raped his then colleague Brittany Higgins in 2019.

That was enough for him to make the finding in favour of Ten on a defence of truth. Defamation cases require judges to make findings only on the balance of probabilities, rather than the “beyond reasonable doubt” demanded by a criminal case. The prime minister at the time, Scott Morrison, and other senior ministers denied there was any sort of political cover-up of the allegation or pressure on Higgins to keep it quiet.

“Only one man and one woman know the truth, with certitude, of what happened,” he said, adding that those two people were “both, in different ways, unreliable historians”.

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