Dyson Heydon, Credit: Shutterstock

Three female lawyers will seek compensation from the High Court of Australia and former Judge Dyson Heydon after a court-initiated investigation found he had sexually harassed six women employed by the court.

The High Court commissioned Vivienne Thom – a former Inspector-General of Intelligence Security – to investigate allegations of sexual harassment following complaints last year.

The investigation found six former judges' associates at Australia's highest court were harassed by a former judge, the court said in a statement. The court has now confirmed that the subject of the investigation is indeed Heydon.

"The findings are of extreme concern to me, my fellow Justices, our Chief Executive and the staff of the Court. We're ashamed that this could have happened at the High Court of Australia," Susan Kiefel, Chief Justice of the High Court, said in a statement.

"We have made a sincere apology to the six women whose complaints were borne out."

Plaintiff law firm Maurice Blackburn Lawyers is seeking compensation from the High Court and from Heydon for three of the women, the firm confirmed in a statement on Tuesday. 

"Dyson Heydon's repeated sexual harassment of young women who were starting out their legal careers was known to many people and has caused significant harm and trauma to my clients," Maurice Blackburn Principal Josh Bornstein said in a statement.

The High Court has already agreed to participate in negotiations and the firm will be asking Heydon's lawyers if they too will negotiate. If not, Maurice Blackburn plans to lodge a claim with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Heydon's lawyers Speed and Stracey did not respond to requests for comment, but earlier issued a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald denying the allegations. 

"In respect of the confidential inquiry and its subsequent confidential report, any allegation of predatory behaviour or breaches of the law is categorically denied by our client," the statement said.

"Our client says that if any conduct of his has caused offence, that result was inadvertent and unintended, and he apologises for any offence caused."

Heydon, a judicial conservative and a committed Christian, sat on the seven-member High Court bench from 2003-13. A former Rhodes scholar, he was appointed professor of law at Sydney University at age 30, the youngest ever to have achieved that post.

The Australian Bar Association endorsed a report by the Australian Human Rights Commission in April this year which found sexual harassment is prevalent and pervasive in Australian workplaces.

"The legal profession is no exception to this," the Bar Association said in a statement.

With reporting by Hannah Roberts. 

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