Photograph: Don Arnold/Getty Images
Good afternoon. Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer said her client is too “scared” to attend court since becoming “arguably Australia’s most hated man”, and that “being called a rapist” meant he would only be able to make money “by going on OnlyFans or something silly like that”.
Lehrmann has launched an appeal after a defamation trial judge ruled in favour of Network Ten, finding on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House. Lehrmann asked the court to stay the costs order of $2m made by Justice Michael Lee in the defamation case, and rejected a demand from Ten for a security of costs order to proceed with the appeal.
Lehrmann’s lawyer called Network Ten’s demand for a $200,000 security “pretty much a bullying tactic” and said there was a “genuine public interest” in allowing the appeal. But Ten’s lawyer rejected the bullying tactic accusation, and said Lehrmann had already “had his day in court”.
Justice Wendy Abraham has reserved her decision.
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