The Daily Telegraph published two articles that reported that actor Geoffrey Rush exhibited sexually inappropriate behavior towards a colleague. Rush sued the news agency for defamation because of it.

The Daily Telegraph alleged truth as a defense. It presented evidence of incidents of Rush’s inappropriate sexual behavior. However, the judge was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the incidents actually occurred.

The judge found that the testimonial evidence presented was not credible. He also noted that one witness was "prone to exaggeration and embellishment" while giving evidence.

When alleging truth as a defence in a defamation case, the defendant must prove to the satisfaction of the court that the facts that he published in the defamatory material actually occurred. Here, the court was not satisfied at all.