Higgins rape claim: he harassed me too

An ex-housemate of the former Liberal staffer accused of raping Brittany Higgins says the man sexually harassed her while they were living together.

Kriti Gupta says she has gone public with her story so the man could see she and other ­alleged victims were ‘not going to hide’.

An ex-housemate of the former Liberal staffer accused of raping his then colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House says the man sexually harassed her while they were living together.

Kriti Gupta learned only on March 10 that her former housemate was the alleged rapist and last week gave a statement to the Australian Federal Police, who are investigating Ms Higgins’ case.

Ms Gupta, 24 decided to go public with her story so the man could see she and other ­alleged victims were “not going to hide”.

“I was at work when I got the text message from my friend saying it was (him),” Ms Gupta said.

“I had a full blown panic ­attack, but I wasn’t surprised ­either. He had that type of personality where he didn’t really ­respect women, he always spoke poorly about women.

“Because he was my friend I ­always brushed it off — that’s a big part of the Australian culture, these types of microaggressions and jokes we often push aside.

“I just kept thinking about all the times he touched me and made me uncomfortable, all the times he was sexually suggestive in our old Instagram messages.”

Ms Gupta, who works in marketing, lived with the man from October 2019 to February 2020.

He was alleged to have raped his colleague Ms Higgins in then ­defence industry minister Linda Reynolds’ parliamentary office in March 2019 following a night of drinking.

Ms Higgins spoke publicly about her alleged rape for the first time on February 15 and formally reported the incident to the AFP nine days later. The AFP has interviewed a number of people in relation to the claims, sources said, but has not laid any charges against the ­alleged perpetrator.

Brittany Higgins. Picture: Getty Images

The man did not respond to ­requests for comment on Sunday.

Ms Higgins’ rape allegation and her criticism of Senator Reynolds and the government’s handling of the matter has embroiled the Coalition in turmoil for the past five weeks.

Senator Reynolds, now Defence Minister, has been on medical leave since February 24 after stress exacerbated an ­existing heart condition.

She is due to return to work next week — missing this week’s Senate estimates hearings — but some Coalition MPs are sceptical she will remain in cabinet.

Ms Gupta and her former housemate met and became friends through a 2015 Model United Nations conference. At the age of 23, she decided to move from Brisbane to Sydney and contacted him for help.

He was the only person Ms Gupta knew in Sydney and in her field of work — public relations.

“He offered me a place to live. He helped me with references and writing my resume, he gave off a very powerful and knowledgeable (vibe). He came from a high position so I always sought that ­advice from him,” she said.

“When we were texting (before the move to Sydney) he’d say ‘I’ll take you out for a nice, fancy dinner’. I said ‘I’m not interested in that, I only want to be friends and housemates’.

“He’d be constantly talking about how attractive I am and how hot my recent posts were.

“It’s inappropriate for friends to constantly be talking about your looks, ­especially when it’s guy friends and you made it clear you don’t feel comfortable.”

During the four months they were housemates, Ms Gupta ­alleges he sexually harassed her about once a fortnight or so and only after he’d been drinking.

“The first couple of days (of being housemates) it was OK, the first week or so, but after that he quickly, whenever he drank, he got into that habit,” she said.

“It was never when he was sober. It made me feel unsafe in my own home. He sat close to me on the couch, rubbing my knee, barging into my room demanding we go out and take drugs.

“I made a quick rule we would never get drunk together.”

In December 2019, the man charged into her bedroom drunk at 3am and “demanded” he have sex with her, Ms Gupta said.

“I pushed him out of the room. I was leaving half an hour after that for a flight so I was already half awake when he came in.

“I slammed the door shut and pushed my suitcase up against the door. By the time I left half an hour later he was fast asleep,” she said.

Ms Gupta said she would never have moved in with him if she had known about his earlier alleged sexual assault and harassment.

The former Liberal staffer was sacked from Senator Reynolds’ ­office over a “security breach” after the alleged rape of Ms Higgins. He had been working in the private sector until recently.

The Australian has revealed two more women, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged they had been sexually assaulted by the same man in 2016 and 2020.

Another woman told the ABC she was sexually harassed by him — including having her thigh stoked under a table — in 2017.

“This is the work of a man who feels he has the power to do this time and time again because he hasn’t been reprimanded for his actions,” Ms Gupta said.

“I didn’t do anything about it when it was happening to me. I only came forward because Brittany came forward.

“It’s easy to say one of us should have come forward earlier but it’s a very hard thing to do because when someone treats you in such a way and sexually harasses you or sexually assaults you, sometimes women don’t even come to terms with it for years even afterwards.”

One week after thousands of women protested against gendered violence, Ms Gupta said she wanted to help change the conversation so that sexual harassment in the home was condemned.

“Just because it’s not illegal to sexually harass someone in their home or down the street, it’s not OK,” she said.

“Sexual harassment is only ­illegal in the workplace but I firmly believe it should be taken seriously in other facets of life,” she said.  Under the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act, sexual harassment is illegal at work, in school or when providing goods, services or accommodation.