A young man thinking he could live the “free love” dream of the sexual revolution has rightly been declared a rapist.

Justice Michael Lee’s judgement in the Federal Court yesterday in the Bruce Lehrmann v Lisa Wilkinson and Channel 10 defamation case also criticised Brittany Higgins for her part in leading Lehrmann on.

That of course does not in any way excuse his wicked assault of her, as Lee’s judgement rightly makes clear.

As Justice Lee pointed out, if Lehrmann was being faithful to his girlfriend, who called him several times while he was alone with Higgins, he would not have been in trouble.

Fidelity. What a novel idea.

If Higgins had not been “quite touchy” with Lehrmann and “engaged in a mutually passionate kiss” while out drinking before the rape, she may not have been raped.

Again, it must be stressed, this is no excuse for Lehrman’s actions.

But Justice Lee was scathing in condemning Higgins for being an untruthful witness when it came to her account of her behaviour with Lehrmann while out on the town.

The sexual revolution and its influence on culture and family breakdown can no longer be ignored.

While Family First does not seek to enforce a moral code on anyone, it does seek to advocate for the voluntary adherence to morals and to encourage people to consider how upholding them can contribute to human and societal flourishing.

The values of the sexual revolution mitigate against strong families and therefore undermine our nation.

If there’s little or no public advocacy of the good the true and the beautiful and encouragement of it in public policy, how are young people to know any better?

Families should be supported in their role as moral teachers, not have this undermined by the values of the sexual revolution and the values of LGBTIQA+ activists that are taught in schools.

While no one wants the government to be the morals police, it has a role in promoting and upholding the ideals of marriage and family and in supporting and encouraging families to teach morality to their children.

If Bruce and Brittany had grown up in a culture that was a little more circumspect about the good the true and the beautiful, perhaps this whole ugly affair resulting in the rape of a young woman would not have occurred.

There would certainly be less rape and domestic violence if moral values were more valued.

There are enough moral warnings in Justice Lee’s judgement for anyone who cares to think deeply about the implications of his judgement.

It’s also worth mentioning the other aspect of this case which is part of what Lee described as an “omnishambles”.

Higgins, her boyfriend David Sharaz and Lisa Wilkinson decided to opt for trial by media and to weaponise the incident against the Morrison government.

Lee was scathing of Wilkinson’s Logies awards speech which asserted a rape took place and was given on the eve of a criminal trial, later aborted.

Lee also said there was no political cover-up by the Liberal party as asserted by Higgins, Wilkinson and the Labor party.

Let’s hope Labor’s “mean girls” – Senators Wong, Gallagher and former Senator Keneally apologise to Higgins’ former boss Senator Lynda Reynolds for aggressively and unfairly targeting her in Senate Estimates.

With Lehrmann now declared a rapist in this civil trial, the danger is that Wilkinson, Channel 10, Higgins and the “mean girls” may feel some vindication.

In the eyes of many who only see the headlines, they will be. But for anyone who reads the judgement, they will know that almost everyone involved in this saga has behaved badly.