Bruce Lehrmann judge said to have no links to published book of judgement

Monday, October 21, 2024

On October 15, 2024, a spokesperson for the Federal Court of Australia stated that neither the court nor Judge Michael Lee, who presided over the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial concluded in April, had any involvement in a book written about Lee's judgement. The response followed Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) announcing it would publish a book about Lee's judgement titled He Went Back for His Hat, listing Lee as the book's author on the MUP's web site.

In response to the court's comments, the chairman of the MUP board, Professor Emeritus Warren Bebbington told The Sydney Morning Herald that they had approached Lee prior to the announcement of the publication and that he did not see any issue with the book's publication. "The book was an initiative of MUP, but Justice Lee was approached by us in advance and did not see any issue with the publication of a judgement that is in the public domain," Bebbington said. According to The Herald, Bebbington further commented that the MUP "did not ask Justice Lee for his approval of [the book cover and title]".

The book's title is a reference to a quote by Lee in which he described Lehrmann's decision to sue Network 10 after criminal proceedings against him were abandoned. "Having escaped the lion's den, Mr. Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat," Lee said. The case had involved Lehrmann suing Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10 for defamation over an interview with Brittany Higgins. The trial had concluded with Judge Michael Lee finding that on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann had raped Higgins. Lehrmann had earlier faced criminal proceedings for the alleged rape, which were abandoned due to juror misconduct.

In May 2024, Lehrmann appealed against his loss in the lawsuit. In response, Network 10 in June asked the court to order him to pay a AUD200,000 security to cover some their legal costs in order to go through with the appeal. Lehrmann's solicitor Zali Burrows declared their opposition to the proposed payment, telling the court that Lehrmann was on Centrelink [unemployment] benefits and was unable to pay the money to the network. "The only shot he'd probably ever have in making money is by going on OnlyFans or something silly like that," Burrows told the court.

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