Witness Fiona Brown says Brittany Higgins ‘didn’t tell me she had been raped’

The ex-Liberal chief of staff told the court a text from Brittany Higgins led her to believe the young staffer had been ‘in the office drunk’ and naked, and was ­embarrassed.

Fiona Brown leaves the Federal Court after giving evidence. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown has repeatedly denied Brittany Higgins told her she had been raped by Bruce Lehrmann in their first meeting following the alleged assault in Parliament House.

The former chief of staff to Linda Reynolds told the Federal Court on Monday that she first became concerned about the “possibility” of a rape in the ministerial ­office after a Parliamentary Services official told her Ms Higgins had been found naked on the Liberal senator’s couch.

Ms Brown also said “her ­antenna was up” after Mr Lehrmann had told her that he had gone back to Parliament House to drink whisky in the early hours of Saturday, March 23, 2019.

In a late-night hearing on Monday to ensure Ms Brown would not be traumatised by multiple days at court due to concerns about her mental state, the ex-Liberal staffer repeatedly said she “couldn’t rule it in, couldn’t rule it out” that Ms Higgins had been sexually assaulted.

Ms Brown categorically denied that Ms Higgins told her in their first meeting on March 26 after the alleged incident that “he (Mr Lehrmann) was on top of me” or that she had been raped.

Fiona Brown in May. Picture: John Feder

Ms Brown on Monday told the court she couldn’t rule it in, couldn’t rule it out” that Ms Higgins had been sexually assaulted based on what she was told. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Ms Brown told the court that Ms Higgins’ demeanour had changed during the first meeting when she saw a code of conduct and an employee assistance handbook on Ms Brown’s desk.

“She saw the papers on my desk and I could see her eyes shifting,” Ms Brown said. “She was thinking quickly on her feet.”

In a later meeting on March 28, 2019, Ms Brown said Ms Higgins then told her that Mr Lehrmann had been “on top” of her. Ms Brown told the court she was shocked and when she asked Ms Higgins what she meant by that statement, her junior staffer replied: “I am responsible for what I drink and my actions.”

Television presenter Lisa Wilkinson’s lawyer Sue Chrysanthou cross-examined Ms Brown in the Federal Court on Monday, with a YouTube live­stream that has played throughout the trial turned off due to the witness’s fragile health.

Mr Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson over her interview with Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021, detailing accu­sations that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on March 23, 2019, but not naming him as the ­alleged attacker. Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied raping Ms Higgins.

Earlier in court, veteran Ten Network news boss Peter Meakin conceded The Project should have gone back to Ms Higgins after it received a contemporaneous email the night before the broadcast that showed Ms Brown had “supported” Ms Higgins in going to police.

Mr Meakin said an email of contemporaneous notes between a Parliamentary Services official and Ms Brown “certainly tells a different narrative” than the one presented by Wilkinson’s interview with Ms Higgins, and agreed that if he had read the email, it would have been “obviously important to go and check this account with Ms Higgins”.

Ms Brown told the court on Monday that when she heard Ms Higgins was found naked in the then defence industry minister’s office, it “crossed her mind” that Ms Higgins might have been assaulted. “I couldn’t rule it out, and I couldn’t rule it in,” she added.

In her first meeting with Ms Higgins, Ms Brown said she gave Ms Higgins a brochure for an Employee Assistance Program but denied the reason was because Ms Higgins told her she had been assaulted. “Nope,” she responded, when asked.

Bruce Lehrmann was an ‘immature staffer’, Ms Brown told the court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

When pressed about whether she suspected from what she was told in that meeting that Ms Higgins had been assaulted, Ms Brown said: “It was a possibility.”

Ms Chrysanthou asked her whether Ms Higgins was told to take a few days off because she told Ms Brown she was assaulted.

“(The) advice from department was she had been found naked … it was the appropriate thing to do,” she said instead.

Ms Brown would not admit Ms Higgins was “crying” in that meeting, or that she was hysterically crying, only that she had “water in her eyes” for which she offered her a tissue.

Asked why she didn’t press Ms Higgins on why she was naked, she said she “wasn’t there to interview the staff”.

“I was there to make inquiries about what their version was, what the department had told me, and I would let the department know,” she said.

Ms Brown said, based on a text from Ms Higgins a few days later, she understood she had been “in the office drunk” and naked, and was vocalising that she was ­embarrassed.

Just before her meeting with Ms Higgins, she had a meeting with Mr Lehrmann.

Ms Brown told the court she was largely concerned about the security implications of the pair coming to parliament in the middle of the night. “He was just a 23 year-old, immature staffer. I did not think anything other than that,” she said.

She said she didn’t necessarily think Mr Lehrmann was lying but that her “antenna was up” when he said he came back to Parliament House to drink whisky.

“One thought I did have was ‘has he come back here to access files?’”, she said.

Ms Brown was asked whether after her meeting with Mr Lehrmann – and witnessing his behaviour during that meeting – whether it entered her mind that Ms Higgins had been assaulted.

“I couldn’t rule it in and I couldn’t rule it out. I hadn’t spoke to the other staff member (Ms Higgins),” she said.

When pressed, she said “Yes, it had entered my mind”.

Ms Brown told the court that, in a further meeting on March 28, Ms Higgins said, in a casual manner, that she remembered Mr Lehrmann was on top of her.

Ms Brown said she was shocked. “I did not know what she meant by that,” she said.

She said Ms Higgins also told her during that conversation: “I am responsible for what I drink and my actions.”

Ms Brown said she didn’t ­include it in her notes but should have.

Earlier in the day, the court heard an email was forwarded to The Project producer Angus Llewellyn from the Prime Minister’s office the day before the broadcast. It was a copy of an email chain between a Department of Parliamentary Services assistant secretary and Ms Brown. It stated that: “Should (Ms Higgins) choose to, she’s able to pursue a complaint, including a complaint made to the police and that to do so would be within her rights … She would have the full and ongoing support of yourself and the minister.”

Mr Meakin said the email “certainly tells a different narrative” and agreed that if he had read the email, it would have been “obviously important to go and check this account with Ms Higgins”.

“It would have been desirable, yes, (to check her account).”