Accused ‘attracted to’ Brittany, court told
A court has heard that Bruce Lehrmann was attracted to Brittany Higgins in the lead up to the night of the alleged assault.
As the trial for the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins is nearing completion, the court has heard that Bruce Lehrmann was attracted to Ms Higgins in the lead-up to the night of the alleged assault.
Mr Lehrmann is accused of sexually assaulting the former Liberal staffer in Senator Linda Reynolds’ office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold has begun his closing arguments.
Mr Drumgold said “we know the answer is yes” when putting it to the court whether the accused was attracted to Ms Higgins.
He pointed to evidence from Nicole Hamer in which she told the court Mr Lehrmann commented on Ms Higgins being “good looking” before she was hired by Senator Linda Reynolds.
He also pointed out that in her second police interview, Ms Higgins told authorities that Mr Lehrmann tried to kiss her following a work event at some time in March 2019, which she rejected.
The jury was also asked to consider why Mr Lehrmann entered Parliament House that evening.
Mr Drumgold suggested it was the “most convenient place to get the drunk and very vulnerable complainant alone”.
“With the hope she would either not resist or not remember,” the court heard.
Higgins ‘right to be scared’
Ms Higgins was “right to be scared” about making a rape allegation as a young person in a world of powerful political forces, the Mr Drumgold has told the court.
In his closing address to the jury, Mr Drumgold said it was clear that powerful political forces were at play as evidenced by former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ decision to contact the defence lawyer Steve Whybrow seeking transcripts.
He raised Ms Higgins’ fear at discovering on February 24, 2021, that Peter Dutton had been briefed by the AFP about her complaint before the media reported it.
“We say she was right to be scared,’’ Mr Drumgold said.
“She was right to move slowly and carefully.”
Mr Drumgold said there were “strong political forces” at play.
“Suffice to say there were clearly strong political forces at play in the period immediately after the events, through the election and beyond,’’ he said.
“These forces were at play for the almost two years she worked for Senator Cash.”
After the morning break, Mr Drumgold added that he was not suggesting the defence was part of those forces.
“I said it’s clear there are strong political forces at play here,’’ he said.
“I am not suggesting for a moment that the defence counsel is part of those political forces.”
Instead, he said it went to some of the motivations of other witnesses.
Final days for rape trial
The trial is expected to end some time this week after more than a dozen witnesses were cut from the potential witness list.
On Tuesday, the prosecution tendered an agreed statement of facts, which was read out to the ACT Supreme Court by Chief Justice Lucy McCallum.
As part of one of the 11 agreed facts, the jury heard Mr Lehrmann’s girlfriend at the time of the alleged assault attempted to call him multiple times in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
The court heard the accused missed six telephone calls from his then-girlfriend between the hours of 2.16 and 2.18am.
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Some of the other agreed upon facts include that there was no evidence that Mr Lehrmann or Ms Higgins accessed the Parliament House computing network between 1.30am and 2.40am on March 23, 2019.
Another of the tendered fact states that Ms Higgins called her ex-boyfriend and former colleague Ben Dillaway at 10.39pm on March 22, 2019, but her call was not answered.
Mr Dillaway then sent a text to Ms Higgins at 8.09am the following morning and she sent one back at 8.17am.
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