Sydney columnist Peter FitzSimons got Higgins $325K book deal offer, jury told

A book deal worth $325,000 was allegedly brokered for Brittany Higgins by Sydney columnist and author Peter FizSimons, who offered to act as her agent, a jury has been told.

Sydney columnist and author Peter FitzSimons offered to act as an “agent” and got Brittany Higgins a book deal worth more $325,000 - without her asking, the jury has been told.

Ms Higgins was under cross examination on Friday from the barrister representing her alleged rapist, Bruce Lehrmann, about her relationship with the media.

Lehrmann, 27, has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse with Ms Higgins, without her consent and being reckless to her consent, in the early hours of March 23, 2019 in the office in which they both worked.

Ms Higgins told the jury she met FitzSimons at an event, alongside his wife Lisa Wilkinson, shortly before going public in early 2021.

Lehrmann’s barrister, Steven Whybrow, asked Ms Higgins about the moment FitzSimons and her discussed a potential book deal.

Sydney author and columnist Peter Fitzsimons. Picture: Adam Yip

“I really didn’t ask him, he absolutely approached me,” Ms Higgins told the court.

Ms Higgins told the court that within the next day he informed her he had an offer for $325,000 for a book.

Brittany Higgins on day four of the trial. Picture: Gary Ramage

She told the court she already had chapters outlined in her mind, which was weeks before she went to the police.

“I just felt I needed to document my experience,” Ms Higgins told the jury.

After days of evidence, Ms Higgins appeared to hit her limit, denouncing as “deeply insulting” a suggestion from her alleged attacker’s lawyer that she made up a claim of being raped in Parliament House.

The jury had already heard Ms Higgins give evidence she felt “pressured” by senior politicians to drop her allegations of rape against Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann on the eve of an election.

Bruce Lehrmann at the Magistrates Court in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Yesterday she said she feared leaks at the top of her party and that journalists were fighting to win awards and land her six-figure book deals as the story broke.

And Ms Higgins’ time in the stand is not yet over.

CCTV was played to the jury, and a sobbing Ms Higgins, showing her in a white cocktail dress, unable to put her shoes back on, after going through security at Parliament House just before 2am with Lehrmann.

Crown Prosecutor Shane Drumgold opened the trial, on Tuesday, telling the jury Ms Higgins and Lehrmann went into the ministerial office of their boss, Linda Reynolds, where Lehrmann raped her moments after they last appeared together in the footage.

Mr Drumgold read texts between Ms Higgins and staffer Ben Dillaway, her ex boyfriend and closest confidant after the alleged rape.

“I was barely lucid, I don’t feel like it was consensual at all,” Ms Higgins texted Mr Dillaway, the jury heard.

Lehrmann’s barrister, Steve Whybrow, opened his defence saying his client never had sex with Ms Higgins at all.

Mr Whybrow told the jury Lehrmann was always going to be charged because Ms Higgins was telling a story “whose time had come”.

“This unstoppable snowball began rolling down the mountain, becoming an avalanche that could not be stopped by something as mundane as, in this particular case, that the allegations were not true,” the barrister told the court.

Lawyers for Bruce Lehrmann, Steven Whybrow and Katrina Musgrove. Picture: Gary Ramage

Mr Whybrow, on Friday, questioned why Ms Higgins told people that she was going to doctors in the week following the alleged rape – but never followed through.

“The reason you didn't go to the doctor was because you hadn’t had sex with anyone on Friday night consensual or otherwise,” Mr Whybrow said.

“That’s not true, that’s not true,” Ms Higgins replied, her voice rising.

“It was to bolster your false suggestion that something happened with Mr Lehrmann,” Mr Whybrow said.

“Nothing you’re saying right now is true whatsoever, and it’s deeply insulting,” Ms Higgins said, shaking her head.

Ms Higgins claimed to police, in recorded interviews played this week, that she lost consciousness on the couch in Ms Reynolds’ office and was jolted out of unconsciousness when Lehrmann’s knee pressed into her thigh.

“I was crying throughout the entire process …” she said, pausing.

“I said no at least half a dozen times. He did not stop, he kept going.”

Ms Higgins described Lehrmann as slightly overweight, dimpled and dressed in the “standard Liberal attire of RM (Williams) boots, the suits and polo Ralph Lauren shirts”.

Much of the trial has been about the way the Liberals, particularly her chief of staff Fiona Brown and Minister Reynolds, handled her allegations in the weeks leading up to the 2019 Federal election.

Former Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds. Picture: Rohan Thomson

Ms Higgins first spoke to police within a few weeks of the alleged rape, but told the jury she felt pressured to drop after a meeting with Ms Brown and Minister Reynolds.

“This could, theoretically, be perceived in the broader public sense as a political problem for the Liberal Party with women,” she told the court, adding it was a choice between helping campaign in WA or staying in the ACT to continue the complaint.

“It became really apparent my job was on the line, so I towed the party line, and I decided not to proceed at that time,” Ms Higgins told the jury. In early April 2019, the court heard, Ms Higgins texted Mr Dillaway saying she did not plan to pursue the prosecution, she told the court on Friday she didn’t have full faith in her confidant.

“As much as I trusted and really adored Ben, he was still a senior media Adviser to a Liberal cabinet minister,” she told the court.

“I didn’t entirely trust him that it wouldn’t get back to one of his best friends … who was in the Prime Minister’s office.”

A few days later she emailed police asking not to proceed with the case – it was two days after Scott Morrison called the 2019 election, the jury heard.

Mr Whybrow, on Friday, quizzed Ms Higgins about numerous deleted messages and photographs found on her phone.

Brittany Higgins walked to court for day four of the trial. Picture: Gary Ramage

Ms Higgins’ voice rose as she told the jury she had sent information to friends for safekeeping before wiping her phone and handing it to police.

Under cross examination she told the court she was concerned about “how information flows” in Canberra.

“I know how information flows within the ministerial wing, I know that it’s not siloed, I was very scared. I was seeking legal advice to know my rights because I was terrified,” she told the court.

Mr Whybrow also extensively pressed Ms Higgins on her relationship with the press – and why she had spoken to journalists Samantha Maiden and Lisa Wilkinson before going to the police.

“I stand by my choice, I’m not ashamed of that,” she told the court.

She will return to the witness box on Monday.