Bruce Lehrmann has lost his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, bringing to an end a sprawling legal saga which has gripped the nation.

In a live oral summary that took two and a half hours, Justice Michael Lee said the former Liberal staffer was not defamed by Wilkinson and Ten when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins on Monday 15 February 2021 in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.

“In summary, I consider it more likely than not in those early hours, after a long night of conviviality and drinking and having successfully brought Ms Higgins back to a secluded place, Mr Lehrmann was hellbent on having sex with a woman he found attractive” and knew was inebriated, Lee said.

Lehrmann denied the rape allegations and pleaded not guilty at his trial in the Australian Capital Territory supreme court, which was aborted due to juror misconduct.

In The Project interview, Higgins told Wilkinson she was sexually assaulted on a couch in the office of her then boss, former defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, in the early hours of Saturday 23 March 2019.

In the witness box over five days Lehrmann admitted telling three different stories – including two that were lies – about the reason for his after-hours visit to Parliament House with Higgins after a night out in Canberra.

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