By Duncan Murray in Sydney

The barrister due to represent Bruce Lehrmann as he appeals a major defamation loss wants to keep his identity secret for fear of harassment.

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.

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.

“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.

Taking into account the availability of the parties, Justice Wendy Abraham said the appeal hearing would most likely take place in August.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

“The finding against him is extremely serious,” the judge said at the time.

“The impact on him if he is denied that right (of appeal) is self-evident.”

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.

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.

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.

He was living on Centrelink benefits in part because the broadcaster contributed to his image as a rapist, she said.

“They are one of the contributors as to why he’s pretty much unemployable,” Ms Burrows added.

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.

It came after a criminal case facing Lehrmann was abandoned in 2022 with no findings made against him.

“Having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat,” Justice Lee said in his decision.