Brittany Higgins ‘five times over’ limit night of alleged rape
Ten’s barrister claimed Brittany Higgins was five times over the legal alcohol limit on the night of her alleged rape as she took the witness box for the first time in the high-profile defamation case.
Brittany Higgins says she wanted to “work her way up” Liberal Party ranks and had grand aspirations of a career in political media strategy, after entering the witness box for the first time in the defamation case between Bruce Lehrmann, Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Ms Higgins arrived in court shortly after Mr Lehrmann finished his cross-examination on Tuesday afternoon, marking the first time the two had been in a courtroom together since Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial was aborted because of juror misconduct last year.
During his cross-examination, Mr Lehrmann confessed that the Kerry Stokes-owned Seven Network was paying his rent for one year, in exchange for two interviews he had done for investigations program Spotlight.
Following the conclusion of Mr Lehrmann’s time in the witness box, Ten’s barrister, Matthew Collins KC, opened the network’s case, revealing he had engaged a toxicology expert to give evidence that Ms Higgins seemed to be about five times over the legal alcohol limit on the night she was allegedly raped.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over her interview with Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021, detailing accusations that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins but not naming him as the alleged attacker.
Ten and Wilkinson rely on a defence of truth, and will try to prove Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on the couch of then-defence industries minister Linda Reynolds in Parliament House in the early hours of the morning on March 23, 2019.
Ms Higgins, Ten’s first witness, arrived at the Federal Court, flanked by her fiance David Sharaz, close friend Emma Webster and lawyer Leon Zwiyer, after lunch on Tuesday, and was seated in the front row of the court gallery – Mr Lehrmann sitting about ten chairs to her left.
Ms Higgins began to give evidence-in-chief under Dr Collins. Later in the week, she will be cross-examined by Mr Lehrmann’s barrister, Steven Whybrow SC, who interrogated her in the witness box during the ACT criminal trial.
She swore an oath on the bible, and gave preliminary evidence about her height, weight and studies. “Can you tell us how tall you are?” Dr Collins asked. Ms Higgins estimated she was “about 5 feet 7”.
“Thank you,” Dr Collins replied. “This is going to seem like a strange question but as of the 22nd of March, 2019, are you able to estimate how much you weighed?”
Ms Higgins: “I was much thinner at the time, around early 60kg. 60, 62 kilos.”
She told the court she attended Gold Coast Christian College and AB Patterson High School, and studied degrees in bachelor of business and bachelor of communications at Griffith University.
She was asked about her early career plans, and said she got involved in politics while at university. “I was campaigning … for freedom of speech on campus in relation to political and religious clubs – they wouldn’t affiliate them,” Ms Higgins said. “And so I harassed all my local MPs for it. That was how I first came into contact with people in the Liberal Party.”
Asked whether her interest was specific to “the Liberal side of politics”, Ms Higgins replied: “I grew up in Queensland. So, for me, it was kind of a given.”
She told the court she worked as an electoral officer in the office of Queensland state Liberal MP Sam O’Connor, before moving to the office of then-defence industries minister Steven Ciobo.
“This was in the context of the Malcolm Turnbull … leadership spill, so suddenly, their office had a lot of movement and they had a lot of roles available,” she said.
“I ultimately ended up in (Mr Ciobo’s) Canberra office in front-of-house and as an assistant media adviser.
“There sort of was an addendum to it, that I’d be trained up.”
Ms Higgins said she had great aspirations of a career in federal politics in media relations.
“I wanted to work my way up through the ranks,” she said.
“I wanted to be a media adviser. I wanted to be like a press secretary essentially.”
When Dr Collins opened Ten’s case on Tuesday afternoon, he told the court that Mr Lehrmann’s claims he had been defamed by The Project interview were “misconceived” and “bound to fail.”
He said the interview was in the public interest, and played a part in catalysing the Respect@Work legislation that created major changes to improve the culture across Parliament House and Australian workplaces.
Dr Collins said Mr Lehrmann’s suggestion that Ms Higgins fabricated a rape claim to save her job was “monstrous” and untrue.
“(Mr Lehrmann’s) theory is apparently that Ms Higgins saw Mr Lehrmann emerge from his meeting with Ms Brown on the 26th of March and start collecting his belongings, surmised that he had been sacked because they had come back to Parliament House on a Saturday morning, thought it was inevitable that she was about to suffer the same fate and so fabricated an allegation of rape in order to save her job,” Dr Collins said.
“If we’ve understood that theory correctly, it is, with respect to our friends, incoherent.
“First and foremost, it will be a monstrous thing, as Ms Higgins herself will tell you, to fabricate an allegation of rape.
“Then, reflect on this: If Ms Higgins was acting to save her job, she had achieved her objective on the 26th of March, 2019.
“Why on earth … would she, almost two years later, resign from the successor to that job as a ministerial staffer, reactivate her complaint against Mr Lehrmann with the Australian Federal Police, and give media interviews about what had occurred to her, exposing herself to the extraordinary scrutiny that has since followed?”
Dr Collins also revealed the network had engaged toxicology expert Michael Robertson to give evidence that Ms Higgins was about five times over the legal alcohol limit on the night she was allegedly raped.
Earlier in the day, Mr Lehrmann admitted Seven was paying his rent from June 2023 to June 2024 in exchange for two interviews aired earlier this year.
“It was part of the agreement, isn’t it, that you were paid for 12 months of accommodation by Channel 7?” Lisa Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC asked him.
Mr Lehrmann replied: “That is … the only part of the comp … Yes, that’s what I get.”
Ms Chrysanthou: “That occurred from June 2023, and it’s to be paid until June 2024.”
Mr Lehrmann was then presented with an invoice, which he said he did not recognise.
“Network 7 handle the accommodation arrangements,” he said.
The trial continues.
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