It took a well-equipped, forensic judge to unstitch Lehrmann – and hand the media a rare win | Richard Ackland

Or another way of putting it, why on earth would Bruce Lehrmann go to court with a defamation claim over a rape allegation knowing there was evidence that could demolish his case and wreck his reputation?

Lehrmann had plied her with drinks at bars in Canberra; had been seen “pashing” her at a nightclub (“ one does not pash passively ”); had said he found Higgins attractive; had implausible excuses for going back to Parliament House in the small hours; had opportunistically had sex with her while she was heavily intoxicated; did not return phone calls from his girlfriend who was waiting at home; had left Parliament House without Higgins (“the action of a cad”); and a security guard had found her semi-naked and comatose on the ministerial couch.

There was extensive criticism of the way Channel Ten’s team at The Project handled the story, concentrating on an alleged political cover-up of the rape for which there was no solid verification.

She had become an advocate for the survivor, and this drew her into misjudgment about celebrating Higgins in her Logies speech shortly before Lehrmann’s criminal trial began in Canberra.

The journalists have lost 15 of them with awards of damages totalling more than $6m, and costs beyond the dreams of Croesus: Mina Greiss; Heston Russell; William Duma; Erin Molan; John Barilaro; Nisserine Nassif; Chris Murphy; Chau Chak Wing (ABC); Elaine Stead; Pauline Hanson; Geoffrey Rush; Sam Oliver; Chau Chak Wing (Fairfax); Hockey; and the Chelmsford case, which was substantially lost on appeal.

The media has now succeeded in five substantially defended cases: Ben Roberts-Smith v Fairfax(war crimes); Peter V’Landys v ABC (animal cruelty); Daniel Taylor v Nationwide News (over the “wise guy” label in an Ibrahim special liftout); Tony Bellino v Courier-Mail (for a Moonlight State recap) and now Lehrmann v Network Ten.