The owner of a luxury Sydney property where Bruce Lehrmann lived rent-free under a deal with the Seven Network has appeared for the first time in a NSW tribunal as she pursues the former Liberal staffer over alleged property damage.
Meakes appeared before the tribunal at a preliminary hearing in Sydney on Thursday. Lehrmann was not present. During the defamation case, the Federal Court heard Seven spent about $100,000 paying Lehrmann’s rent for a year to April 2024 under an exclusive interview deal. Lee found Ten and Wilkinson had proven to the civil standard – on the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins in Parliament House in March 2019 when they were working as staffers to Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, who was then the defence industry minister.“We’ve been experiencing horrific parties,” one neighbour told this masthead at the time. They singled out the “screeching karaoke” for particular disapprobation.