<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>330917</docID> <postdate>2024-10-14 12:06:21</postdate> <headline>Ten wants Lehrmann to pay if ‘weak’ appeal goes ahead</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-330918" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20240617190869757090-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Bruce Lehrmann should pay $200,000 security to pursue his appeal, a judge has heard. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Miklos Bolza</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>Bruce Lehrmann should pay up before proceeding with his doomed appeal of findings that he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House and was therefore not entitled to a defamation payout, Ten has said.</strong></p> <p>The network and journalist Lisa Wilkinson are seeking orders that the former Liberal staffer pay $200,000 to the Full Federal Court before his appeal of a devastating defamation loss is allowed to proceed.</p> <p>The 29-year-old initially sued over a February 2021 report on The Project interviewing Brittany Higgins about her allegations she was sexually assaulted in Parliament House in March 2019.</p> <p>During a hearing on Monday, Ten's barrister Matt Collins KC said some of Lehrmann's grounds of appeal were "hopeless" while others were only "faintly arguable".</p> <p>In particular, he pointed to Lehrmann's attack on the Federal Court's findings from April that Ms Higgins gave impressive evidence over the rape.</p> <p>Lehrmann's account of the incident was rejected by the court.</p> <p>"It must be exceptionally weak in our submission where it turns on questions of credit," Dr Collins told Justice Wendy Abraham.</p> <p>Lehrmann did not have the financial capacity to fund the appeal and if he was ordered to pay $200,000, that would be the end of the case, the court was told.</p> <p>In April, Justice Michael Lee ruled that the 29-year-old sexually assaulted Ms Higgins in the Parliament House office of their then boss Senator Linda Reynolds in March 2019 based on the balance of probabilities.</p> <p>Lehrmann has been ordered to pay $2 million in legal costs to Ten while his bill for Wilkinson's defence costs is still being hashed out.</p> <p>Justice Abraham has also been asked by Lehrmann to stay these costs orders while the appeal is on foot.</p> <p>His appeal seeks to overturn Justice Lee's findings, including that he would have only been entitled to $20,000 if he had succeeded in his lawsuit.</p> <p>The 29-year-old denies the sexual assault and is not facing criminal charges over the incident after his trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.</p> </body>