Channel 10 was slammed by a judge for Lisa Wilkinson’s Logies grandstanding speech. But just hours later, The Project made a similar mistake

Project host Sarah Harris introduced a guest whose alleged rapist was acquitted of sexual assault as a ‘rape survivor’ just hours after Network Ten was criticized for Lisa Wilkinson’s infamous Logies speech.

The guest was the victims’ attorney, Saxon Mullins, and her accused attacker, Luke Lazarus, was found not guilty of having sexual intercourse with her without consent seven years ago.

The trial of Bruce Lehrmann for the rape of Brittany Higgins was postponed for three months as Wilkinson praised the then alleged victim’s bravery at the Logies before facing a jury.

His trial was ultimately abandoned due to juror misconduct, but Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found on Monday afternoon that Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins.

Judge Lee also convicted Ten of “highly inappropriate” behavior in relation to Wilkinson’s Logies grandeur, which he said she should have known was “fraught with danger”.

He said Ten’s senior trial lawyer Tasha Smithies should have been aware of potential legal issues when he advised Wilkinson on the speech.

The Project led its episode on Monday night with news of the Federal Court’s defamation judgment in which Judge Lee convicted Lehrmann.

Although Judge Lee ruled in favor of Ten, he was critical of Wilkinson’s February 2021 interview with Ms Higgins on The Project, finding that the program had failed to properly investigate the inconsistencies in her version of events.

He criticized The Project for not questioning the motives of Ms. Higgins’ fiancée, David Sharaz, for encouraging Ms. Higgins to come forward, and for not doing enough to contact Lehrmann.

Lehrmann had claimed he was defamed by Ten and Wilkinson when Ms Higgins said in The Project interview that she had been raped at Parliament House in March 2019.

Ms Higgins did not name Lehrmann – who had not yet been charged with rape – but said he could be identified from what was said.

On Monday evening, the Project panel spoke to barrister Justin Quill, acting on behalf of Ten, and said the network had achieved a ‘major victory’.

Host Sarah Harris then introduced Saxon Mullins of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA) to discuss Judge Lee’s decision.

“Saxon Mullins is a rape survivor and advocate for victims,” Harris said, without explaining that Ms. Mullins’ accused rapist had been acquitted.

‘It must have been particularly triggering for you – you had to go through that legal system after an attack – what was that like?’ Harris said.

Ms Mullins was 18 when she accused 21-year-old Luke Lazarus, son of multimillionaire hotelier Andrew Lazarus, of raping her in an alley behind his father’s Soho nightclub in Kings Cross in May 2013.

Mr Lazarus was found guilty of raping Ms Mullins in 2015 and spent 11 months in prison, but was given a retrial and acquitted in 2017 by a NSW District Court judge, who sat without a jury.

Judge Robyn Tupman found that although Ms Saxon did not consent to anal intercourse, there was no evidence that Lazarus knew she was not consenting or was reckless.

“I have concluded that the Crown has not demonstrated that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the complainant did not consent,” she said.

Ms Mullins remained anonymous during the legal proceedings, but was identified in a Four Corners episode entitled I Am That Girl, which aired in May 2018.

Nine days after Ms Higgins told her story, Mr Lazarus called 2GB’s Ben Fordham to defend himself.

In that interview, Mr Lazarus said he believed Ms Mullins “wanted to be there” when he had anal sex with the virgin four minutes after meeting her.

There had never been any dispute that Mr. Lazarus had sex with Ms. Mullins; the only question was whether or not she gave consent.

Ms Mullins, whose biography on the RASARA website refers to “her sexual assault in 2013”, said she asked Mr Lazarus to stop. He said she didn’t.

‘It has been found [that] my belief that she consented was reasonable,” Mr. Lazarus told Fordham.

‘I regret this whole night. Ultimately I was found innocent. [Accused persons acquitted of crimes are not ‘found innocent’].

Network Ten did not respond to a request for comment. Daily Mail Australia attempted to contact Mr Lazarus at this workplace.

Ms Mullins appeared alongside Ms Higgins and Wilkinson at the Justice March 4 meeting outside Parliament House in March 2021.

Wilkinson gave her Logies speech in June 2022 when she accepted a statuette for Most Outstanding News Coverage of Public Affairs for the Higgins interview.

“Brittany Higgins was a political problem,” Wilkinson had said. ‘And governments tend to make political problems disappear. But Brittany never did that.

“And the truth is, this honor belongs to Brittany. It is part of the unwavering courage of a 26-year-old woman.

“Thank you for helping change the national conversation. And from all future generations of women, thank you, Brittany, for never giving up.”

That speech came eight days before Lehrmann’s rape trial in the ACT Supreme Court was due to begin.

Chief Justice Lucy McCallum postponed the hearing because what Wilkinson had said “completely erases” the distinction between an accusation and a finding of guilt.

Judge Lee found Ten’s behavior was ‘highly inappropriate and unjustifiable’ in encouraging Wilkinson to make the comments she did.

‘[Wilkinson] only came to give the speech because she was sorely let down by those she turned to for advice and counsel,” he said.

“I regret to say that Ms Smithies’ continued lack of insight into the inappropriateness of her conduct in connection with the speech reflects, in my view, a lack of proper appreciation of her professional obligations as a lawyer,” he said.

Judge Lee also said that as an experienced journalist, Wilkinson should have known that what she said at the Logies was ‘fraught with danger’.

Wilkinson had given the speech because she had become “inextricably intertwined with Mrs Higgins” and not because of pressure from Ten, he said.

Ms Mullins campaigned for changes to rape laws in NSW, which resulted in laws requiring someone to do or say something to their partner to show consent to sex.

She received the Young Persons’ Human Rights Medal from the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2018.