Brittany Higgins questioned over white dress worn on night of alleged rape
Brittany Higgins has been questioned over a dress she wore on the night she was allegedly raped, telling the court she had gotten a previous detail “wrong”.
WARNING: GRAPHIC
Brittany Higgins has revealed she “turned up the contrast” in a photo of a bruise she originally claimed was sustained during an alleged rape.
But in evidence to the Federal Court, she has now conceded it could also be from falling over on the night when she was drunk.
Ms Higgins had previously alleged the bruise was from Bruce Lehrmann’s knee pinning her leg to Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds’ office couch during the alleged rape.
The bruise photograph was first published by media outlets when former Liberal staffer Ms Higgins went public with her story in 2021.
She confirmed in evidence she gave it to news.com.au and The Project in the weeks before the story broke.
Ms Higgins gave evidence in the Federal Court on Wednesday about the reasons why she took the photograph and how the injury was sustained.
“It’s my leg and I’ve turned up the contrast so you can see the bruise,” Ms Higgins said.
Ms Higgins was asked how the injury was sustained.
“I wasn’t sure what it was. I thought it could have been either the assault or tripping up the stairs,’’ she said.
She suggested one of the reasons why she took the photograph was that things had started to go bad at work and conversations were becoming “tense.”
Ms Higgins told the court that she went to a bathroom in Parliament House on April 3, 2019, and took a photo of the bruise.
At the time, she had held talks with colleagues and had also started to speak to police.
Ms Higgins said she felt as though her then chief of staff Fiona Brown was annoyed about her not making a clear decision on whether she would travel to Perth during the election or work out of Queensland.
Around that time, she went into the bathroom and took a photo of her leg.
“I took it after things started going wrong in the office,” she said. “I could feel things were going wrong and I felt like I needed proof. I needed to validate or corroborate my experience.”
Ms Higgins is giving evidence in the defamation trial that Mr Lehrmann has launched against Channel 10 and Lisa Wilkinson. Mr Lehrmann has vehemently and consistently denied raping Ms Higgins.
Ms Higgins was also grilled on why she wore the white cocktail dress again that she alleges she was raped in.
“What happened to the dress after the events you’ve described?,” Channel 10’s barrister Dr Matt Collins KC asked.
“Yeah, so I put it in a bag under my bed for a period of time,” she said. “I was wrong about that period of time. In the criminal case, I thought it was longer than what it actually was.
“It was under my bed for about six weeks before I wore it one more time and then never wore it again.
“It was a Liberal Party event. It was for Linda Reynolds. I think it was her birthday.”
‘Were you raped?’: Colleague’s blunt question
Ms Higgins earlier revealed in court her shock and distress at learning from a male colleague that she had been found naked in the ministerial office and the moment he bluntly asked: “Were you raped?”
The Federal Court heard that she had a conversation with a male colleague called Chris Payne who asked her if she was “OK” and wondered if this was “about the weekend”.
“He could tell I’d been upset for the past couple days and I think he just pulled me aside to check in,” Ms Higgins said.
“He told me that I had been found naked in the middle of the night at Parliament House, and I didn’t know that information before so, to me, I was shocked. I was upset.
“And then he asked me, he was the first person to say, and he point blank asked me ‘were you raped?’. And I cried and I said yes.”
Ms Higgins resumed her evidence at 2pm on Wednesday.
She was asked about messages she exchanged with her then chief of staff Fiona Brown in Ms Reynolds’ office.
“Hi, Fiona. Sorry, I missed your call. I’m doing fine, just vocalising things in such a way is quite confronting,” Ms Higgins wrote.
During her evidence, Dr Collins asked: “What did you mean by vocalising things in such a way?:
“The fact that I told her I didn’t say rape, but the fact that I told her I’d been assaulted, and that Bruce assaulted me.
“It was just me stating to her, it was confronting, the fact I had to tell her in person. It was overwhelming.”
Ms Higgins confirmed she did not use the word rape in her conversations with Ms Brown.
Earlier, Ms Higgins told the Federal Court she eventually disclosed her alleged rape to ex-boyfriend Ben Dillaway.
“I told [Ben] that Friday didn’t play out the way that I’d made it seem (and) that Bruce and I ended up back in the room and that I was really intoxicated,” she said.
“And I think I said something to the effect of I couldn’t consent or I was too drunk to consent or something like that.”
In one text message, Ms Higgins wrote: “I just think if [Bruce] thought it was okay, why would he just leave me there like that.”
“[Ben] said something really confronting, like ‘he f**ked you?’ and I remember feeling taken aback,’’ Ms Higgins said.
Ms Higgins became emotional when she discussed being left in the office naked.
“Even in his mind, even if I give [Bruce] the benefit of every doubt, how could he leave me there like that?” she cried.
Ms Higgins said she was messaging Mr Dillaway and “processing it in real time”.
Higgins brought back into room where alleged rape occurred
Ms Higgins also gave evidence about the moment she was brought back into the room she alleges she was raped to discuss the incident with Ms Reynolds.
“It was the first time I’d been back in the room after the assault and so for me it was yeah, it just really had an impact,” Ms Higgins said.
“It was so glaringly obvious to me. I didn’t think it needed to be pointed out. We’re talking about … the assault that had happened in the minister’s office while being in the minister’s office.
“Right next to the couch I had been assaulted on. I don’t understand how they didn’t put those two things together.
“But no, I didn’t. I didn’t protest or I didn’t yell at them.”
Ms Higgins said the minister apologised and said “I’m sorry”.
“She said these are things that women go through,” Ms Higgins said.
“She said if you go to the police, please keep us informed. I was pretty traumatised being back in that room.”
Senator Reynolds has previously given evidence in the criminal trial that Ms Higgins never used the word rape.
She also told Channel 7’s Spotlight program that Ms Higgins never used the r-word and she also rejected any claim she did not encourage her to go to police.
At the criminal trial, Senator Reynolds said she was unaware that Ms Higgins had told her chief of staff Fiona Brown “I remember him on top of me” before the office meeting.
Ms Brown told the criminal trial Senator Reynolds was aware because she told her.
After the trial, Senator Reynolds said she accepted that Ms Brown’s account was accurate.
“Since the trial, Senator Reynolds has had the opportunity to discuss the matter with Ms Brown, which has prompted our client’s recall of further information,” Senator Reynolds’ legal firm Bennett said in a statement.
“Having reflected further on this issue and with the benefit of discussing with Ms Brown, Senator Reynolds now recalls this conversation and, therefore, during the Spotlight interview, Senator Reynolds relayed this point to Liam Bartlett.”
Email Lehrmann sent after alleged rape
Earlier, Ms Higgins broke down in the witness box as she described a “smiley face” email that Mr Lehrmann sent to her after the alleged rape that “freaked her out”.
Ms Higgins told the Federal Court on Wednesday that she was in a “depressive” state and was “distraught” after the alleged incident.
But she did not tell her flatmate about it, telling Justice Michael Lee that she couldn’t “process it”.
When she returned to work on the Monday after the incident, she confirmed she exchanged an email with Mr Lehrmann about a work related matter.
“I was just doing the bare minimum to get through,” she said.
“And so I was trying to busy myself with just going about my day. I wasn’t talking about it. I wasn’t accessing it. It was just doing the bare minimum of what I had to do.”
Channel 10’s barrister Dr Matt Collins KC then asked: “What was your state of mind as you arrived at work at about 8am?”
“The truth is I wasn’t well,” Ms Higgins said. “But I wasn’t crying. It was very weird, like fugue state.
“I was just completely detached from all emotion. I was there for work and I went to work.
“I was completely disconnected from myself. It was, yeah, I was just disassociating probably.”
Ms Higgins again broke down when she described the email Mr Lehrmann sent to her with a smiley face.
“I think because we’d never had a friendly social relationship, and then suddenly after he raped me there was this familiarity and a smiley face,” she said.
“I felt undeserved and it really, it gave me the heebie jeebies, I don’t know, it just really freaked me out.”
Ms Higgins said that she noticed Mr Lehrmann was acting like “nothing happened”.
“I was concerned that maybe he’d said that we’d had consensual sex,” she said.
“And I was worried that maybe he had gone around and told people we’d had consensual sex.
“And that was something I was really scared about. Because it’s my word against him trying to verify that … that there was no consent when I told him no. And so I was really scared.
“But he was acting so normal and like nothing had happened. I was relieved that maybe this wasn’t a fight I’d have to have right now.
“I was trying to just soften the situation to show that it wasn’t a threat, to show that like, ‘I’m not here to destroy your life’.”
Mr Lehrmann, the man she accused of raping Ms Higgins, denies the allegation and is suing Channel 10 and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation.
‘The word rape is confronting’
Ms Higgins broke down as she spoke about the word rape being “confronting” and her reluctance to use the term initially.
She told the Federal Court she did not use the word rape when she spoke to her chief of staff Fiona Brown on the Tuesday.
Ms Higgins said she told her, however, that she remembered Mr Lehrmann on top of her and that Ms Brown responded “Oh God.”
Ms Brown has previously given evidence in the ACT Supreme Court that her recollection is that this conversation took place later in the week and she did not know there was any allegation of rape on the Tuesday.
In discussing her text messages with a Liberal staffer and former boyfriend Ben Dillaway, Ms Higgins said she was “still being sensitive and soft with my language.”
“I don’t know, I think the word rape is confronting and I wasn’t ready to talk about it in those terms yet,” she said.
“I was terrified of becoming the story. I wanted to keep on track. Like my job meant everything to me and I really loved it.
“I wanted to report to the police, but I wanted to do it in a way that somehow I could protect my privacy and I wanted to do it with the support of (my) work I didn’t want to go behind anyone’s back or get into trouble.”
As Ms Higgins again became distressed and wept in the witness box, Justice Lee took an early lunch break at 12.38pm.
Tearful Higgins’ graphic account of alleged rape
Earlier, Ms Higgins wept as she delivered a graphic account of her alleged rape in a ministerial office, telling the Federal Court she woke up and “he was on top of me”.
“I told him ‘No’, on a loop,” Ms Higgins said. “I don’t know how many times I said it. I told him to stop. I couldn’t scream for some reason.
“I was just like trapped in my throat. I couldn’t do it. And I felt really waterlogged and heavy and I couldn’t, I couldn’t move.
“I was under the impression that it had been going on for, like, a little bit of time. I use the expression ‘I was late to the party’.
“I was spread open and exposed. My legs were pinned open so he was on top of me, one leg was kind of pinned against the side of the couch and the other one was pinned open.
“And all of a sudden … he stopped and he got off me.”
Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by Mr Lehrmann in the early hours of March 23, 2019, on a couch in the Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds’ private office in the ministerial suite.
Mr Lehrmann strongly denies the allegations and was never convicted of any crime. He denies that any sexual activity took place, consensual or otherwise.
Ms Higgins has told the Federal Court her memory of the night had gaps. She did not recall, for example, struggling to put her shoes on when she got to Parliament House with Mr Lehrmann.
She had, however, seen CCTV footage of these events years later.
“So the first thing I remember when I woke up was a pain in my leg. That was the thing that kind of woke me up,” she said.
“Bruce was on top of me. His arms were over the top of the couch. He was having sex with me at that point in time.”
‘So wasted’: Higgins breaks down in court
Ms Higgins claimed she was “so wasted” and “completely obliterated” on the night of the alleged rape but that she remembers Mr Lehrmann touching her leg at a nightclub and being “handsy”.
The former Liberal staffer broke down in tears are she continued her evidence on Wednesday, detailing what happened on the night she drank at The Dock with Mr Lehrmann and a group of Liberal staffers including Peter Dutton’s press secretary Austin Wenke.
The group then moved on to a nightclub, 88mph, with Mr Wenke and another former Liberal staffer, Lauren Gains, who will give evidence she saw Mr Lehrmann kiss Ms Higgins.
Mr Lehrmann denies any consensual sexual activity, including kissing Ms Higgins.
“I remember him sitting really close to me. I remember him having his arm around my shoulder. I remember him touching me,’’ Ms Higgins told the Federal Court today.
“And I remember having a thought process of discomfort but not wanting to vocalise the discomfort. It was in the field of tolerance.
“I didn’t push him away. Didn’t snap at him. It was in the field of tolerance. I was dealing with him touching me. I didn’t want it but I was I was tolerating it.
“He was touching my legs up and up like my thigh sort of area. I remember him sort of being over my shoulder like I just remember him being all over in my space at the nightclub.”
Breaking down
Ms Higgins started to break down in the stand as she delivered an account of returning to Parliament House in an Uber with Mr Lehrmann.
She became emotional and started to cry, but told Justice Lee she was OK to continue her evidence.
After the group left The Dock, they went to 88mph where Mr Lehrmann told police he liked to “boogie”.
Ms Higgins then agreed to take an Uber back to Parliament with Mr Lehrmann.
“And do you have a recollection of any other discussion while in the vehicle going from 88mph to Parliament?,’’ Dr Collins said.
“I don’t remember talking about anything else,” she replied as she became emotional.
“Do you have a recollection of when the vehicle arrived?,” Channel 10’s barrister Dr Collins asked.
“Yes,” she said.
Justice Lee, who is presiding over the case, intervened asking Ms Higgins if she wanted to take a break.
“If you feel at any stage you need a break, in order to properly answer the questions please let me know,’’ he said.
Ms Higgins said she was fine to keep going. She said when she arrived at Parliament she didn’t have a security pass.
“I don’t even really remember being escorted to the office by the security guards,” she said.
“I know all those things happened, but they don’t really have independent memories of it.”
11 vodka drinks
Ms Higgins earlier confirmed she had 11 vodka drinks at The Dock hotel on the night she alleges she was raped.
“It’s notorious that you were at The Dock until shortly before midnight on the 22nd of March 2019,” Dr Collins said.
“Doing the best you can, are you able to tell his honour how many drinks you consumed?”
“I personally don’t recall but I have seen the footage and I know I had 11 at The Dock,” Ms Higgins replied.
The CCTV footage suggests Ms Higgins ate a single piece of pizza and a few hot chips.
“I’ve seen the footage and I ate a single slice of pizza,” she said.
Dr Collins asked if the 11 drinks at The Dock was an “unusual number for you”.
“Never that big, never in Canberra,” she said.
On Tuesday, Dr Collins told the Federal Court that Ms Higgins was likely five times the legal limit to drive – 0.23 – on the night she was allegedly raped.
Dr Collins commenced by asking Ms Higgins a “strange question”, which was how much she weighed at the time of the alleged rape.
“I was much thinner at the time. Early 60 kilos,’’ she said. Ms Higgins said she was around 5ft7 tall.
Justice Lee has already heard evidence that Ms Higgins drank 12 vodkas and no non-alcoholic drinks.
Mr Lehrmann initially told the court he could not remember buying her drinks but later conceded the CCTV suggested he had.
“I don’t recall buying her two vodkas, no,” Mr Lehrmann said.
“I’m happy to be corrected. It’s very hard to recall specifically, I’m sorry.”
Dr Collins also told the court a lip reader would give evidence he moved three drinks closer to Higgins on the table and said they were “all hers, all hers”.
“You moved them to the edge of the table so that they were close to Ms Higgins,” Dr Collins said.
“You were trying to get Ms Higgins drunk.”
“No, I disagree with that,’’ Mr Lehrmann replied.
‘Embarrassed’: Higgins details alleged kiss
Earlier on Wednesday morning, Ms Higgins told the Federal Court that Mr Lehrmann tried to kiss her on the lips at a work dinner in the lead up to the alleged rape and she worried she had “led him on”.
“While I was waiting for the cab or the Uber, Mr Lehrmann came up to me,’’ she said.
“He came into my space and he tried to kiss me on the lips. He seemed embarrassed but I just assumed that I led him on or something.”
Earlier, Ms Higgins told the court that Mr Lehrmann took her phone “in jest” to stop her leaving on the first night they met at a Canberra pub.
Ms Higgins revealed she later worked for him in the same office but felt quite junior in the office.
“I was kind of treated like a secretary, to be honest,” she said.
Dr Collins asked her about a night of drinks at the Kingston Hotel.
It was March, 2, 2019, the day of Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds’ swearing in to a new portfolio. A group of staffers had enjoyed a celebratory lunch at a Canberra Italian restaurant called Agostinis.
They then “kicked on” that afternoon drinking at the nearby Kingston Hotel in Canberra.
Ms Higgins told the court when former Liberal minister Steven Ciobo resigned from politics she lost her job, prompting a game of “musical chairs” and she was rehired by Ms Reynolds.
During the phase she was looking for a new job, she messaged Defence Industry Minister’s press secretary and former Sky News journalist Nicky Hamer on Instagram to inquire if there were jobs going in the new minister’s office.
She met Mr Lehrmann for the first time and spoke to Ms Hamer about the job.
The event was around a fortnight before Ms Higgins spent the night drinking with Mr Lehrmann on March 23 and then alleged he raped her.
But when she tried to leave the pub on March 2, Mr Lehrmann took her phone, she told the court.
“I just know that at one point they took my phone in jest, sorry Mr Lehrmann took my phone in jest,’’ she said.
“So that I couldn’t leave for a while. I could no longer drive because I’d had too much to drink so I didn’t have the ability to drive to go to my next appointment to see my friend. So I couldn’t order an Uber.
“I think that’s why Mr Lehrmann took my phone. He perceived it to be a joke. I thought it was a trick.”
Last week, Dr Collins cross examined Mr Lehrmann about the trip to the Kingston Hotel with Ms Hamer.
Dr Collins asked if Ms Hamer had a “heated discussion” with Mr Lehrmann that night at the pub and admonished him for taking Ms Higgins phone.
Mr Lehrmann said on that first night at the Kingston Hotel, he had never met Ms Higgins and did not know who she was.
“You’ve given definitive evidence to his honour that you didn’t know who Ms Higgins was as at the second of March 2019?,” Dr Collins said.
“Have I got that right?”
Mr Lehrmann then said it was possible he had seen her when she was working on reception.
“Well, I may, I may have misspoke that I might have come across her on the reception desk in passing,’’ he said.
Dr Collins asked Mr Lehrmann if he had in fact inquired about Ms Higgins when he spoke to Ms Hamer at the pub.
“Did you say to Ms Hamer in the presence of Mr Wotton, “Do you know Brittany Higgins,’’ Dr Collins asked.
“I’m sorry I don’t recall that conversation,’’ Mr Lehrmann replied. “I just don’t recall it happening.”
Dr Collins asked if Mr Lehrmann had in fact said to Ms Hamer about Ms Higgins and said words to the effect of “I’ve got her on Instagram”.
“I don’t recall that happening,” Mr Lehrmann said.
Dr Collins asked if Mr Lehrmann had asked Ms Hamer to message her and see if she’s free to come to the pub.
“I don’t recall that happening,” Mr Lehrmann said.
Dr Collins asked if he “denied that happened”.
“I don’t have a recollection of that happening,” Mr Lehrmann said.
“And did you say to Ms Hamer in the presence of Mr Wotton, “Brittany’s good looking”.
“I just don’t recall this conversation,” Mr Lehrmann replied.
Dr Collins said he wanted to suggest to Mr Lehrmann he found her attractive.
“I am suggesting to you … you found her attractive, and you said: Britney’s good looking.”
Dr Collins asked if Ms Hamer then disappeared with Ms Higgins for about 45 minutes and when she came back suggested Ms Higgins should come work in the new office.
“Did you say to Ms Higgins words to this effect, ‘why don’t you stay for a drink, I haven’t had the chance to have a chat with you’,’’ Dr Collins SC said.
“Possibly. I can’t definitively recall that I’m sorry,” Mr Lehrmann replied.
Dr Collins then asked if he then snatched her phone to stop her from calling an Uber to leave.
“No, I did not take a phone, Dr Collins,’’ Mr Lehrmann said.
Dr Collins asked if there was a “heated discussion” with Ms Hamer after Ms Higgins left.
During the conversation, he suggested that Ms Hamer told Mr Lehrmann to “shut the f*ck up”.
“No, I don’t recall that,’’ he said.
Dr Collins said that Ms Hamer said that Ms Higgins probably thought she wouldn’t get a job with Senator Reynolds because she had not agreed to stay for another drink.
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The barrister then asked if Mr Lehrmann had told Ms Hamer she was being a feminist.
Mr Lehrmann did not recall this.
The hearing continues.