Linda Reynolds’ ex-chief of staff takes the stand in Lehrmann defamation trial
Fiona Brown, the former chief of staff for Linda Reynolds, has told court Brittany Higgins was “casual” when she disclosed her alleged rape.
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Brittany Higgins’ former manager, Fiona Brown, has told a court how the former political staffer was “casual” when disclosing her alleged rape in Parliament House.
Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10 is entering its final week in the Federal Court.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Ms Wilkinson and Network 10, arguing he was defamed by Ms Wilkinson’s February 2021 The Project interview with Brittany Higgins during which she made sexual assault allegations.
Ms Higgins has alleged that she was raped by her former colleague inside the ministerial suite of Senator Linda Reynolds in Parliament House in March 2019.
Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegations and has told the court he had no sexual contact with Ms Higgins early on March 23, 2019.
“NOT UNREASONABLE”
Fiona Brown, who was Senator Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff at the time of the alleged sexual assault, took the stand late on Monday afternoon.
Justice Michael Lee allowed Ms Brown to give her evidence while the court’s YouTube link was turned off.
The trial has been broadcast live online, however Justice Lee ordered that the link be turned off as he heard Monday afternoon’s evidence because of concerns for Ms Brown’s mental health.
She told the court she was informed by the Department of Finance on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 that Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins had entered Parliament House intoxicated after hours.
The court heard that Ms Brown was told that Ms Higgins was found naked on a couch.
She was told that an ambulance was offered, however Ms Higgins declined
Ms Brown said she was “deeply shocked” that the pair had entered Parliament House after hours.
”You were concerned about what could have happened,” Ms Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou said.
“Yes,” Ms Brown said.
“You suspect they may have had sexual intercourse,” Ms Chrysanthou asked.
“It was not unreasonable,” Ms Brown responded.
Ms Brown told the court that she called Mr Lehrmann into a meeting where he said he came back to Parliament House to drink whiskey.
During his evidence, Mr Lehrmann admitted he lied to Ms Brown and said he went back to Parliament House to pick up his key before he worked on question time folders.
Ms Chrysanthou questioned whether Ms Brown had the credentials or experience to interview Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann given Ms Higgins had been found naked.
She said she had been asked by the Department of Finance to ask specific questions about a potential security breach.
“You knew their age, you knew they came back intoxicated, you understood they had been drinking whiskey, you knew she had been found … naked. Putting those things together, did you think it was more likely than not they had sex,” Justice Michael Lee asked.
“I wouldn’t say more likely than not, it was possible,” Ms Brown said.
“HYSTERICAL”
The court heard that she then called Ms Higgins in for an interview.
Ms Brown denied that she was told by Ms Higgins that she woke up to find Mr Lehrmann “on top” of her.
“She said ‘Bruce was on top of me’,” Ms Chrysanthou said.
“No,” Ms Brown.
Ms Brown said she gave Ms Higgins a brochure for the Employee Assistance Program.
“She became hysterical,” Ms Chrysanthou asked.
“No,” Ms Brown said.
However Ms Brown noted that Ms Higgins had “water in her eyes” and she handed her a tissue.
The court has heard that Ms Brown told Ms Higgins to take the day off and work from home for a couple of days.
Ms Brown also offered to allow Ms Higgins to go home to the Gold Coast.
However she denied doing this because Ms Higgins told her that she had been assaulted.
“I REMEMBER HIM ON TOP OF ME”
Ms Brown told the court that Ms Higgins made no allegation of rape in their meeting on Tuesday, March 26.
However she said that at a subsequent meeting two days later, that Ms Higgins disclosed the allegation to her.
“She pivoited, she was quote casual, she just said out of the blue ‘I remember him on top of me’,” Ms Brown said.
“I was shocked by that.”
She said Ms Higgins did not use Mr Lehrmann’s name in the meeting.
TOXICOLOGY
The court heard earlier on Monday that a toxicologist estimated Ms Higgins could have had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.23 on the night of the alleged rape.
Dr Michael Robertson was called as a witness by Ten to estimate Ms Higgins’ BAC at the time of the alleged assault in Parliament House.
He was shown footage of Ms Higgins standing on one foot as she attempted to take off her shoes as she entered Parliament House security.
“Do you agree that, for somebody who has drunk a lot of alcohol, it would be a fairly complex exercise in terms of muscle coordination,” Mr Lehrmann’s barrister Steve Whybrow SC asked.
“That wouldn’t be an easy task, I note she appeared to be supporting herself or at least holding the table … How much she was relying on the table, I don’t know,” Dr Robertson said.
“I agree that’s a relatively difficult task for someone who had a particularly grossly impaired balance.”
“SUPER F***ED UP”
Gold Coast-based Queensland MP Sam O’Connor told the court on Monday that he knew Ms Higgins from a time when she worked in his office before she moved to Canberra.
The court has heard that on March 29, 2019, Ms Higgins texted Mr O’Connor saying: “Sorry I’m just over it, this super f***ed up thing happened a while ago.”
The Member for Bonney told the court that that evening he spoke to her on the phone, and Ms Higgins said she had gone out drinking with a group of fellow Liberal advisers.
“She talked about how another staffer, I didn’t know his name at the time, she mentioned that he worked for George Brandis and that he was from Toowoomba,” Mr O’Connor said.
“I remember that she told me he had taken her back to Parliament House. And that he had raped her.”
He was asked by Network 10’s barrister Dr Matt Collins KC what words she had used.
“I absolutely remember the word rape - that’s not something you forget,” Mr O’Connor said.
“And she absolutely said he had taken her back to Parliament House, something along the lines of (he) had to drop in there or something
“I remember, because I’d previously been a Federal MP staffer, I remember thinking how unusual that was at that particular time, early Saturday morning and not around any busy week like budget week.”
“SOMETHING HAS ABSOLUTELY CHANGED”
Mr O’Connor told the court that after the alleged incident in March 2019, he noticed a change in Ms Higgins’ demeanour.
“She was a real go-getter, her dream job was to be a press secretary, a media adviser in Canberra,” Mr O’Connor said.
“A dream job and she loved every minute of that job. She really really aspired to do that job and work in Parliament House.
“On her occasional visits to the Gold Coast, of which there were maybe three or four, she absolutely was different. She was a bit testier, we would sometimes have arguments over small things. Something had absolutely changed.”
The court heard that Ms Higgins had previously told him that she did not want the alleged incident to be made public.
However, he said that in January 2021 Ms Higgins told him that she planned to go to the media with her allegations.
“I absolutely remember her desire for some sort of change to the culture around Parliament, that was an ongoing topic of conversation,” Mr O’Connor said.
“This was her next step in achieving that. I do remember thinking it was unusual because every single conversation we’d had up until that point was about her not wanting this to be public, and about her going to great lengths to prevent this from becoming public.
“So I do remember that being unusual.”
FOUR CORNERS
The court heard on Monday that Ms Higgins texted Mr O’Connor to say she had “worked behind the scenes” with Four Corners on an episode.
“I’ve been staying with Lisa W (Wilkinson) and (her husband) Peter FitzSimons in Sydney for the past few days, they’ve been so wonderful,” Ms Higgins said in the March 20, 2021 conversation.
The court heard that in early March, Four Corners broadcast a program “Bursting the Canberra Bubble” relating to then-Attorney General Christian Porter.
Mr Porter has persistently denied the allegations raised in the program.
During her evidence, Ms Higgins previously told the court that she was inspired to come forward and speak publicly after seeing stories about the treatment of women in Canberra.
IDENTITY
Peter Meakin worked as an editorial consultant for Network 10 at the time Ms Higgins’ interview went to air.
He has been questioned about how the alleged perpetrator was referred to in The Project broadcast.
The court has heard that news.com.au journalist Samantha Maiden broke the story on February 15, 2021.
Neither news.com.au nor The Project named Mr Lehrmann in their reporting, however Mr Lehrmann argues he could have been identified from The Project segment.
The court has heard that The Project went further than news.com.au in describing the man at the centre of the allegations as having followed Senator Reynolds from the home affairs portfolio to defence industries and that in February 2021 he was working in Sydney.
“You knew that many more people were likely to identify Mr Lehrmann from those additional facts that The Project was publishing,” Mr Lehrmann’s barrister Matthew Richardson SC asked.
“No I didn’t know that,” Mr Meakin said.
“Well it was pretty obvious,” Mr Richardson said.
“Not to me it wasn’t,” Mr Meakin replied.
“ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE”
Mr Meakin was also questioned about whether the program should have gone back to Ms Higgins to ask her more questions after being provided with a string of text messages between her and Senator Reynolds’ chief of staff Fiona Brown.
The court heard that in the June 7, 2019 messages, Ms Brown wished Ms Higgins “all the best with your new gig”.
Ms Higgins replied: “Thank you, I wanted to say this in person but I can’t overstate how much I value your support and advice throughout this period.
“You have been absolutely incredible and I’m so appreciative.”
“You would agree that is quite different to the manner in which Ms Higgins had depicted Ms Brown on The Project,” Mr Richardson said.
“Yes, it’s inconsistent, I agree,” Mr Meakin said.
“You were aware in the program Ms Higgins has alleged that Ms Brown had said ‘well you wouldn’t’ when Ms Higgins asked if she would be able to come back from her job after going home,” Mr Richardson asked.
“Yes I do,” Mr Meakin said.
When he was asked whether the program could have gone back to Ms Higgins to ask if she had further messages with Ms Brown, Mr Meakin said: “I suppose, in retrospect we could have done a lot of things but I think (producer Angus Llewellyn) did a good job.”
“FEMINISM DEBUNKED”
Justice Michael Lee has ordered that Google provide the subscriber information relating to a YouTube account titled “Feminism Debunked”.
The court heard on Monday it has been alleged that the account uploaded videos of the proceedings.
The case is being broadcast on the Federal Court’s YouTube channel, however those watching are prohibited from recording the proceedings.
Justice Lee ordered that the person running the account be asked to show cause as to why they should not be charged with contempt of court.
“LYING THROUGH HER TEETH”
Over two days in the witness box in the Federal Court, Ms Wilkinson had a series of heated exchanges with Mr Lehrmann’s barrister, Matthew Richardson SC, who accused her of at times losing her objectivity as she investigated Ms Higgins’ allegations.
In her final day in the witness box on Friday, Ms Wilkinson was grilled about texts which she sent to her producer Angus Llewellyn on the afternoon of February 15, 2021 as they were preparing to air Ms Higgins’ interview.
Earlier that day, the story was broken by news.com.au journalist Samantha Maiden and it was being discussed during question time.
“Have you been watching question time, lots of focus on the story, Penny Wong magnificent, (Linda) Reynolds lying through her teeth,” Ms Wilkinson texted Mr Llewellyn at 2.46pm, the court heard.
“Ms Wilkinson, I want to suggest in a contest between Reynolds and Higgins, you were always going to believe Ms Higgins no matter the evidence, do you agree or disagree?” Mr Richardson SC asked.
“Untrue,” Ms Wilkinson responded.
“You could not be objective, I suggest, in terms of making a fair assessment of the evidence concerning the role of Linda Reynolds in this affair?” Mr Richardson said.
“I disagree,” Ms Wilkinson said.
Ms Wilkinson was later given a copy of Hansard from question time from the day and asked to identify the part which led her to claim Senator Reynolds was “lying through her teeth”.
Ms Wilkinson told the court: “Senator Reynolds says ‘at the time of the initial meeting with my staff member, I was not aware of the details or the circumstances of the alleged incident in my office. Had I known I would have conducted the meeting elsewhere’.”
The court heard that Ms Reynolds and her chief of staff, Fiona Brown, held a meeting with Ms Higgins in April 2019 in the room where Ms Higgins claimed the alleged sexual assault occurred.
She was pressed by Justice Michael Lee about which pieces of information led her to describe Ms Reynolds as having “lied through her teeth”.
Ms Wilkinson said: “I believed Ms Higgins … that Ms Reynolds absolutely knew there was a serious sexual element (to the allegation) that existed prior to that meeting.”
“MUCH LOVE, DAVID SHARAZ”
Ms Wilkinson was also grilled about the involvement of Ms Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz while the story was being put together.
The court heard that Mr Sharaz acted as a go-between for The Project and Ms Higgins.
Justice Lee asked whether it was a “good idea to use someone like Mr Sharaz as a conduit for communications with Ms Higgins”.
“My preference was for Ms Higgins to be the main contact,” Ms Wilkinson said.
Ms Wilkinson was also asked why Mr Sharaz signed off one email to her with: “Thanks so much, much love, David Sharaz”.
“Do you think that’s odd?” Justice Lee asked.
“Yeah, I hadn’t had contact with him,” Ms Wilkinson said.
The trial continues on Monday.
Originally published as Linda Reynolds’ ex-chief of staff takes the stand in Lehrmann defamation trial
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