Former Liberal staffer agrees to settle ABC defamation suit
There's been a dramatic development at the start of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case, with an agreement to settle with the ABC. Mr Lehrmann launched the action after his trial over the alleged rape of his former colleague Brittany Higgins -- was abandoned.
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00:00 This morning kicked off with part of the case dropped because it appears there's been an
00:08 agreement between the ABC and Mr Lehrman not to proceed.
00:12 There's been a settlement.
00:14 This is of course the second settlement in this case.
00:17 Bruce Lehrman was also going to sue Newslife Media and journalist Samantha Maiden, but
00:24 that settlement was reached some time ago, although it was only for legal fees and not
00:29 any compensation.
00:31 So there are no details about what the terms of the settlement might be or any costs.
00:39 There are apparently 15 days to resolve that, so we'll just have to wait for that.
00:44 When I left the courtroom earlier, they were watching, however, the Network 10 project
00:50 program with Lisa Wilkinson interviewing Brittany Higgins.
00:55 So Bruce Lehrman's lawyers have begun outlining their case.
00:59 What's the gist of that?
01:02 Well they say that the interview that Ms Wilkinson did with Ms Higgins clearly identified Mr
01:10 Lehrman.
01:11 They say he's been utterly destroyed by this and that he's come to the court to seek justice
01:17 and vindication.
01:19 They say that many of the descriptions that Brittany Higgins gave to the court about who
01:26 the person, even though she didn't name Bruce Lehrman at the time, who the person was in
01:32 her office and other circumstances would have clearly identified him to people who worked
01:38 in that office, to people at Parliament House, and then of course he was named on social
01:43 media and Twitter.
01:46 So they say that that story, that interview, was the source of him being identified and
01:53 that he was defamed by it.
01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]