<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>332503</docID> <postdate>2024-11-06 12:37:56</postdate> <headline>Lehrmann’s barrister hides identity to avoid ‘trolling’</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-331608" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20240617190869757090-original-1-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>A hearing is expected to set out a timetable for Bruce Lehrmann's defamation loss appeal. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Duncan Murray</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>The barrister due to represent Bruce Lehrmann as he appeals a major defamation loss wants to keep his identity secret for fear of harassment.</strong></p> <p>Hearings in which the former Liberal staffer will seek to overturn the Federal Court findings are not expected to be held for the better part of a year but the person due to argue the 29-year-old's case will not be revealed until closer to the time.</p> <p>During a brief hearing on Wednesday, Lehrmann's solicitor Zali Burrows wrote the intended counsel's name on a piece of paper and showed it to the other parties at the bar table.</p> <p>"Until I have the hearing date for the appeal and I have formally briefed him he wishes to remain unnamed just on the basis he doesn't wish to be trolled or harassed, for example, as I have," Ms Burrows told the court.</p> <p>Taking into account the availability of the parties, Justice Wendy Abraham said the appeal hearing would most likely take place in August.</p> <p>"I'm not in a position to actually list the matter, that's for the court to do, but can I ask the parties to hold the dates of the 19th to the 22nd of August for listing," she said.</p> <p>Lehrmann is appealing a judgment handed down in April that he was not defamed in reports he sexually assaulted Brittany Higgins in Parliament House because the allegations were substantially true.</p> <p>The 29-year-old had sued Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a February 2021 broadcast on The Project in which Ms Higgins voiced the allegations.</p> <p>The court ruled in October that Lehrmann would not have to pay $200,000 for the appeal to move forward after Justice Abraham found it was not in the public interest to make him do so.</p> <p>"The finding against him is extremely serious," the judge said at the time.</p> <p>"The impact on him if he is denied that right (of appeal) is self-evident."</p> <p>Justice Abraham also allowed Lehrmann to stay previous court orders that he pay $2 million in legal fees to Ten for their costs of defending the defamation proceeding.</p> <p>Ten had been hoping to stymie the appeal by forcing him to pay the $200,000 as security in the event he lost his appeal and was liable to pay the broadcaster's costs.</p> <p>Ms Burrows told an earlier hearing Lehrmann's financial state and reputation were so dire his only chance to earn an income could be starting an OnlyFans account.</p> <p>He was living on Centrelink benefits in part because the broadcaster contributed to his image as a rapist, she said.</p> <p>"They are one of the contributors as to why he's pretty much unemployable," Ms Burrows added.</p> <p>Justice Michael Lee delivered a crushing blow to Lehrmann in his April judgment, dismissing his defamation suit and finding on the balance of probabilities he raped Ms Higgins in a Parliament House office in March 2019.</p> <p>It came after a criminal case facing Lehrmann was abandoned in 2022 with no findings made against him.</p> <p>"Having escaped the lions' den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat," Justice Lee said in his decision.</p> </body>