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YouTuber and host of the site Feminism Debunked, Glenn Logan, will face contempt proceedings in the Federal Court after he broadcast slabs of Bruce Lehrmann's defamation hearing.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with Brittany Higgins in which she alleged she had been raped at Parliament House in 2019.
Mr Lehrmann's trial over the alleged rape was abandoned due to juror misconduct and there have been no findings against him.
The defamation hearing ran for a month last December, only finishing two days before Christmas. A decision has not been handed down.
Feminism Debunked was singled out towards the end of the hearings, when Justice Michael Lee asked that an order be served on YouTube's parent company Google, to reveal who was responsible for broadcasting proceedings from the channel.
Mr Logan had been ordered to appear in court this morning by 9am to show cause why he should not face contempt proceedings.
But he failed to show up, with his lawyer explaining he had only flown from Melbourne this morning and was on his way to court in Sydney.
The news drew a sharp response from Justice Lee, who said it was completely unacceptable.
"It's not like a tee time [at] a suburban golf club," Justice Lee said.
Outside court, Mr Logan's Lawyer, Patrick Schmidt, said he was "in Sydney now. He was just running a little bit late".
"The proceedings today had nothing to do with ideologies," he said.
"It's the fact that he breached the court order. So we put all that aside, he breached the court order of his honour, and so now he has to face the consequences."
Mr Schmidt told the court his client had not been listening to the defamation hearings last year, but was recording and re-broadcasting for people who were not able to listen to it.
He said Mr Logan was unaware of the court's warnings each day prohibiting recording and re-broadcasting, and believed he was simply providing a public service.
Mr Schmidt told the court Mr Logan was deeply remorseful, and took the videos down as soon as he received the court summons.
He submitted evidence from a medical expert that his client lived with a range of "cognitive impairments" including autism spectrum disorder and depression.
"He's not intellectually disabled, but of low intelligence," Mr Schmidt told the court.
Justice Lee told the court Mr Logan had published the material on at least three other platforms, being Rumble, BitChute and Odysee.
A video posted to the Odysee website was played to the court, in which Mr Logan said his videos would not be taken down by these alternative platforms, as they had by YouTube.
He said these platforms were "not run by feminists" and that YouTube was run by "extreme feminists".
When asked outside the court whether Mr Logan had been truthful with his lawyers, Mr Schmidt said "there [were] a few issues that we need to have a chat to him about. But we'll be doing that prior to any summary hearing".
Mr Schmidt added that his client was upset about what had happened.
"He's extremely worried, extremely remorseful, he's upset that everything's happened," Mr Schmidt said.
"But we now need to face those charges in the summary jurisdiction."
Justice Lee said he would refer the matter to the court's registrar for contempt proceedings.
Journalist Lisa Wilkinson has also returned to the Federal Court today in her battle to get Network Ten to pay her personal legal costs for her defence against a defamation claim brought by Mr Lehrmann.