Brittany Higgins breaks down while giving evidence in Bruce Lehrmann rape trial
Brittany Higgins has been questioned about when she met Lisa Wilkinson to record an interview for the show and air accusations against her alleged rapist.
Brittany Higgins has been questioned about when she met with The Project’s Lisa Wilkinson to record an interview for the show about her alleged sexual assault at Parliament House.
Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent against Ms Higgins in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
Ms Higgins has spent the day on the witness stand facing questions about the night at the centre of the Supreme Court trial and was earlier shown CCTV from the night.
Earlier in the day she broke down in tears while viewing CCTV footage of her and Mr Lehrmann going through security to get into the building.
When asked how high her level of intoxication was at the time the footage was taken, Ms Higgins said she didn’t “remember any of this so it was very high”.
The CCTV showed Ms Higgins walking through the security at 1.46am on March 23, 2019 and appearing to struggle to put her shoes back on.
At this point, Ms Higgins became visibly upset on the witness stand and began crying.
She confirmed it was the second time she had been shown this footage, with the first being during her second police interview in May of 2021.
Court hears Wilkinson ‘angry’ when interview aired
Ms Higgins has been questioned under cross-examination about the timeline of when she engaged with police to bring forward her accusation against Mr Lehrmann and when she met with The Project’s Lisa Wilkinson to record an interview for the show.
Ms Higgins said that she hadn’t had an in depth conversation with Ms Wilkinson about her accusation against Mr Lehrmann before she emailed two police officers on February 4, 2021, explaining her wish to move forward with her complaint.
The court heard Ms Higgins say she had a phone conversation with Ms Wilkinson broadly about the culture of Parliament House before the police email.
Mr Whybrow then produced a document signed by Ms Higgins stating she had recorded an interview with Ms Wilkinson for The Project on February 2, 2021.
Ms Higgins said she didn’t “necessarily want to hurt” the Liberal Party by speaking to the media about her experience.
“I wanted to address a cultural problem. I loved the Liberal Party,” Ms Higgins said.
The court heard Ms Higgins say there were discussions around when The Project interview would be aired, with the former Liberal staffer saying Ms Wilkinson was “quite angry” it aired on a Monday, as it was a day she was not typically on the show.
The court heard how a timeline of events prepared by Ms Higgins to give to the police was given out to two journalists by her partner David Sharaz.
Ms Higgins said in the wake of going public with her accusations, she and her partner were “inundated” with media inquiries.
“I was pretty out of it because I was taking a lot of Valium at that point because I wasn’t coping,” Ms Higgins told the court.
She said Mr Sharaz made the decision to provide the prepared timeline to two journalists on background but that “trust was breached” and it ended up in the hands of the “whole press gallery”.
Ms Higgins said Mr Sharaz “very clearly regrets” the decision to hand out the document that was originally only intended for the police.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr Lehrmann’s lawyer briefly paused his cross examination of Ms Higgins to inform her the third day of the trial was almost over.
“You’ll be pleased to know we are nearly finished for the day,” Mr Whybrow said at about five minutes to 4pm.
“Oh thank God,” Ms Higgins responded.
The cross examination of the former Liberal staffer will resume on Friday morning.
Higgins cross examined over dress claim
Ms Higgins is now being cross examined by Mr Lehrmann’s lawyer Steven Whybrow, who began by questioning the former staffer about the dress she was wearing on the night of the alleged assault.
Mr Whybrow referred to a claim made by Ms Higgins earlier on Thursday that she had placed the dress in a bag under her bed for a period of six months unwashed.
The court had earlier heard that after this period of time Ms Higgins had washed the dress and wore it once more.
During the cross examination, Mr Whybrow asked whether this event was a dinner on May 15, 2019 for Senator Reynolds’ birthday in Perth.
Mr Whybrow pointed out that Ms Higgins had said the dress had remained under her bed for six months, though she was shown wearing it in a photograph from the dinner less than two months after the alleged assault.
“It stayed under my bed for a particular period of time. I was wrong for saying it was six months. But it stayed under my bed unwashed for a period of time,” Ms Higgins told the court.
Mr Whybrow suggested Ms Higgins was not wrong but instead was “not giving true and correct evidence”, the court heard.
“I made a mistake. I was just wrong,” Ms Higgins said.
When asked why she chose to take the dress to Perth with her when she was working for Senator Reynolds in the lead up to the Federal election, Ms Higgins said she was “reclaiming my agency”.
“It may sound ridiculous to you,” she told Mr Whybrow.
Ms Higgins said it was an “empowerment thing” and she wanted to reclaim her agency in the dress she had worn on the night of the alleged assault.
The jury heard Mr Whybrow say it sounded “completely inconsistent with your evidence”.
Higgins’ last email to Bruce Lehrmann
Email exchanges between Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann in the lead up to and following the alleged assault have been shown to the jury.
In the days before the alleged assault, Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann exchanged a number of emails which the former Liberal staffer described as “pretty standard stuff”.
On Monday, following the alleged incident, the court heard Ms Higgins sent Mr Lehrmann an email asking for his help on a work task.
In the email, Ms Higgins wrote that she was “phoning a friend” and asking for help on the task that she had been sent.
The former political staffer told the court Mr Lehrmann had the most extensive knowledge to help with the task which is why she reached out to him.
That was the last email exchange the pair had, with Ms Higgins saying she did not speak to him in person because it was “too hard”.
“I could do it behind a computer screen,” she told the court.
“I was trying to silo myself and pretend it didn’t happen as much as humanly possible.”
‘Scare tactic’: Higgins on meeting with Senator
Ms Higgins has described her first meeting with Senator Linda Reynolds inside the room where the alleged assault occurred, saying the location of that meeting felt like a “scare tactic”.
The former Liberal staffer told the court she believed the meeting with Senator Reynolds and Fiona Brown occurred on April 1, 2019.
Ms Higgins told the court the meeting taking place in the office where the alleged assault occurred was “quite a distracting element”.
“I was quite panicked on the basis I was in the room with the couch,” she said.
Ms Higgins told the court there was a “general level of empathy” from Senator Reynolds and that she apologised and “said something to the effect of I didn’t think he was capable”
She told the jury it then became a conversation about whether Ms Higgins planned on going to Western Australia in the lead up to the election and if she planned on going to the police with her allegations.
“My interpretation was if I raised it with police there were going to be problems and they wanted to be involved and informed,” Ms Higgins told the court.
The jury heard Ms Higgins interpreted the meeting being held in Senator Reynolds’ office as “a scare tactic or an intimidation tactic”.
“My interpretation was that it was an adversarial space,” she said.
Why Higgins kept dress under bed for six months
A photo of what is alleged to be a bruise on Ms Higgins’ leg taken around five days after the alleged assault was shown to the jury on Thursday.
“I took a photo because it was still there,” the former Liberal staffer told the court.
Initially, Ms Higgins said the photo showed her left leg but there was some confusion around this claim and she was asked to stand up and point to the leg on which the bruise was located.
“Are you accepting that photo shows your right leg?” Chief Justice Lucy McCallum asked, which Ms Higgins confirmed.
The jury was then shown two photographs of the white dress Ms Higgins was wearing on the night of the alleged assault.
“I kept it under my bed in a plastic bag for a good six months, untouched, uncleaned,” Ms Higgins told the court.
She said she kept it under her bed because she wasn’t sure how to proceed going forward or if she would be at risk of losing her job.
Ms Higgins said once it became clear she “couldn’t proceed” with coming forward she “very symbolically” washed the dress, wore it once more and then never wore it again.
‘Like a prop’: Higgins relives alleged rape
Ms Higgins described feeling like a “prop” as she gave graphic details of how the alleged assault occurred.
The jury were shown pictures of inside the office where the alleged assault occurred, which belonged to former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds.
The court was shown close up photos of the lounge on which Ms Higgins claims she was raped by Mr Lehrmann.
The grey lounge was located directly in front of the desk of Senator Reynolds.
When asked where she was positioned on the couch at the time of the alleged assault, Ms Higgins said she was “jammed up into the corner” in between the headrest and armrest.
Ms Higgins told the court her legs were “spread open” and she was “fully exposed”.
“I was like a prop pinned into that corner,” a visibly upset Ms Higgins told the court.
‘I don’t remember’: Higgins relives night of alleged rape
The court was played audio of Mr Lehrmann speaking to Parliament House security via intercom on the night of the alleged assault on Wednesday.
“Hi mate, Bruce Lerhmann here with Minister Linda Reynolds here to pick up some documents. I have forgotten my pass,” the court heard the accused saying in the audio.
Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold asked Ms Higgins if she remembered those words being spoken.
Ms Higgins said she remembered words “to that effect” being spoken to her in the taxi ride over.
“I don’t remember those words being spoken into the intercom,” she said.
The court heard Ms Higgins say she was “quite out of it” in the taxi ride over and she didn’t “have the faculties about me to go that’s kind of weird why do you need that at 2am in the morning”.
‘Really drunk’: Higgins says ‘memory patchy’ on night of alleged rape
The jury heard yesterday that the former Liberal staffer was the drunkest she had ever been the night of the alleged assault.
On Wednesday, the jury was played a second interview Ms Higgins conducted with police on May 26, 2021.
The court heard that by the time she left The Dock hotel on the night of March 22, 2019, to head to 88mph club, she was heavily intoxicated.
She put her intoxication level at about 70 per cent and didn’t fully remember having the conversation about leaving the first venue.
“It is really patchy, I will admit that freely. I was really drunk,” the court heard her tell the police.
Ms Higgins recalled having more drinks once the group, which included Mr Lehrmann, reached the new venue, including shots.
She told the police that when she tripped up the stairs attempting to leave the club was when it became clear to her she was heavily intoxicated.
“I was really intoxicated, to the point where it was weird,” she said.
“I felt like I was at the point of obliteration.”
When Ms Higgins took the stand, the court was shown a compilation of CCTV from the night of March 22, 2019.
The footage started at The Dock bar in Canberra, showing Ms Higgins arriving at the venue in a white cocktail dress and greeting a group of defence industry contacts she was acquainted with.
The CCTV documented Ms Higgins having four alcoholic drinks before Mr Lehrmann arrived at the bar at 8.39pm with Austin Wenke, former press secretary to Peter Dutton.
The footage showed the pair purchasing a drink at the bar before moving to a different table, which Ms Higgins eventually joined.
As the footage played, Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold told the court showing each drink purchased by or for Ms Higgins was important to the narrative of what happened later in the night when the alleged assault occurred.
When the CCTV footage reached 11pm, the crown prosecutor once more asked Ms Higgins what her level of intoxication was at this point in the night.
“I have seen myself stumble a little and start swaying, so getting pretty high,” Ms Higgins told the court.
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The crown prosecutor told the jury that at 11.50pm discussions were had about leaving the venue, at which point Ms Higgins was seen consuming her drink “in one gulp”, Mr Drumgold told the court.
The jury heard this was Ms Higgins’ 11th alcoholic drink in the about four hours she had been at the venue.
When asked if she had ever consumed that amount of alcohol in that space of time in her previous adult life Ms Higgins said “no”.
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