It’s a civil case. There is no “guilt” here. No one is going to jail or gaining a criminal record. There is no criminality.

Instead, there’s a judgment as to whether one has executed their civil responsibilities. And for such cases, the burden is “on the balance”. IE, what is more likely.

Here, AFAIU (I haven’t followed the case), someone in the media stated that Lehrmann raped someone, Lehrmann sued them for defamation, to which the basic/obvious defence, and the one employed by the media person, is that the statement in question is true. It was found, on the balance of probabilities, that the statement was true (or more likely true than not).

The line from the judge “Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat", AFAICT, is a reference to how Lehrmann escaped being criminally convicted (and luckily so IIRC) but then found it necessary to bring this defamation case.

Now we know he probably did it and most people if they saw all the evidence would probably conclude the same. Maybe not certainly enough to throw him in jail (though we don’t know that) but certainly enough to say “fuck off with this defamation shit”.

edit: spelling