Homeless, jobless and a rapist: How Bruce Lehrmann planted the seeds of his own ... trends now
Early in his Spotlight interview in June last year, Bruce Lehrmann sat in a Channel Seven studio and confidently said: 'Beware the man with nothing to lose.'
It was a line that backfired badly.
Lehrmann is now homeless, jobless and, in the eyes of the Federal Court, a rapist.
That is to say, Justice Michael Lee found in a civil court that it's likely he did rape Brittany Higgins inside Linda Reynolds' ministerial office in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
He swore black and blue that he didn't do it - first in a police interview, then in a criminal trial, then on television, and then again on television, and finally in his own civil trial.
Ms Higgins, meanwhile, was adamant that he did do it. She told the court as much in painstaking detail, breaking down as she recalled the physical pain she experienced on Senator Reynolds' couch that night.
He presumably launched defamation proceedings against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson because he thought he would win, but now it seems as though he was almost given a lifeline when his rape trial collapsed in 2022 and the charge against him was dropped.
The matter was not going back to trial, ever, and the only reason it did was because Lehrmann himself brought it back to court.
As Justice Lee astutely observed: 'After escaping the lion's den, Bruce Lehrmann made the mistake to come back for his hat.'
Lehrmann appeared stone-faced outside court - expressionless, trying to get through the sea of television cameras
It was found that Lehrmann encouraged her to skoll her drinks, pashed her on the dancefloor, and took her back to Parliament House because he was 'hell-bent' on having sex with her
The civil standard of proof is much lower than the criminal standard, and Lehrmann has not been convicted of a crime, but make no mistake - the finding is damning and the reputation he fought so hard to save has been absolutely shattered.
Lehrmann appeared stone-faced outside court - expressionless, trying to get through the sea of television cameras, perhaps so he could process the situation away from prying eyes.
He didn't react in court either, not even as Justice Lee hammered each point home.
Instead of looking at the judge in disbelief, like everyone else in the room which buzzed with gasps and the quick tapping of keyboards, he kept his head down and wrote studiously in his notebook.
That's also exactly what he did during his criminal trial in 2022. Rather than looking at the witnesses, the judge, or the lawyers, he wrote notes.
And there was a lot to write down in Justice Lee's judgment. Today, he labelled Lehrmann a liar, to the point where he would not accept anything the former staffer said unless it was corroborated by documents or a credible witness.
Lehrmann had told
