Yes, Justice Michael Lee's finding that on the balance of probabilities Brittany Higgins was raped by Mr Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019 has vindicated some of the claims first put to air by Lisa Wilkinson on The Project.

That said, his judgement put many of Ms Higgins' subsequent actions under the microscope and identified numerous misrepresentations and inconsistencies.

He was especially critical of the narrative, created by Ms Higgins and her boyfriend David Sharaz, accusing senior public servants and government ministers of putting up "roadblocks" forcing Ms Higgins to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice.

"The cover-up allegation was objectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies," he said.

While one motivation for the "cover-up" narrative may have been to explain why Ms Higgins did not take her allegations to the police at the time, it has been widely reported there was a deliberate attempt to weaponise the allegations against the Coalition.

Numerous commentators have speculated former prime minister Scott Morrison's flatfooted response contributed to his electoral defeat.

One of the few people praised by Justice Lee was Senator Linda Reynolds' chief of staff, Fiona Brown. Justice Lee said the contemporaneous evidence suggested Ms Brown "had gone out of her way" to support Ms Higgins in 2019.

"To be later vilified as an unfeeling apparatchik [as part of the cover-up narrative] ... must be worse than galling," he said.

Both Channel 10 and Channel 7, which have been locked into an almost partisan rivalry over the rape claims, came under fire for ethical failures and a willingness to put ratings ahead of the human consequences of their reporting.

On the issue of whether or not Channel 10 should have gone to air with the report in the form that was broadcast, Justice Lee said: "The Defamatory imputations of rape fell short of the standard of reasonableness."

He was critical of the conflation of the cover-up allegations with the accusation of rape and said Lisa Wilkinson's interview had failed to subject Ms Higgins's claims to rigorous scrutiny.

Channel 10 had also failed to obtain comment from Mr Lehrmann: "He was not living the life of a hermit. He was working for a public relations firm in Sydney."

At the end of the day, Mr Lehrmann clearly emerged as the villain of the saga, Justice Lee noting he had erred badly in initiating the defamation proceedings at all.

"Having escaped the lion's den [of the aborted criminal trial], Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat ... [Mr Lehrmann] has now been found, at the civil standard of proof, to engage in a great wrong. It follows Ms Higgins has been proven to be a victim of sexual assault," he said.

That, like the findings against Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation claim - now subject of an appeal - is an own goal.

If there are lessons to be learnt from this sorry saga, one is that media organisations have to act with great probity when airing life-changing allegations.

But equally, the subjects of adverse reporting will surely now think twice before using the courts if their houses are not in order.

This case was doomed to become a train wreck from the moment it was decided to try it in the court of public opinion. If the original allegation of rape had been reported to the police in 2019 justice would have been much better served.