Lehrmann: Only 'a bit flirtatious' with Higgins
The courtroom account of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins in parliament house can now be revealed.
The courtroom account of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins in parliament house has finally been released.
Rape accused Bruce Lehrmann says he was contemplating suicide after his “world was rocked” by media reports alleging former ministerial staffer Brittany Higgins had been raped by a colleague in Parliament House, something he says “simply didn’t happen”.
Video of Lehrmann’s interview with the Australian Federal Police, recorded on April 19 in 2021, was played on the fifth day of his trial for the alleged rape of Higgins, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
The playing of the recording on Monday is the first time Mr Lehrmann’s version of events has been put on the public record in a case that has been highly publicised since the allegations were first reported on February 15 in 2021.
Journalist's call raised the alarm
Lehrmann said in the interview he became aware of the reports, in which he was not named, when his then employer the British Australian Tobacco received a request for comment from a reporter.
Lehrmann said his then boss called him into his office and said the journalist said she had heard through government sources that he was the alleged rapist outlined in reports and wanted to know whether he wished to respond.
“I was ready to go,” he said tearfully in the video.
“That week I lined up everything … my single mum was going to be okay [and] get my super.”
Lehrmann said his six-year career in politics was shredded by the press and members of his family were contacted, including his sister in the US, who received a Facebook message from a reporter.
He said a journalist for Nine had footage of him trying to access mental health support and said he knew his career in politics was done, and he didn’t know who he could talk to and trust.
“My world has been rocked,” said Lehrmann, adding he was seeing a psychologist in Toowoomba, in Queensland, where he lived with his mother.
Alleged attack
Lehrmann is facing charges of sexual intercourse without consent and recklessness towards whether Higgins was consenting during an alleged rape in the office of then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds.
When Lehrmann was asked by AFP officers Marcus Boorman and Emma Frizzell if he engaged in sexual intercourse with Ms Higgins without her consent between 1.48am and 2.33am on Saturday, March 23, he said “I obviously reject that allegation”.
“It simply didn’t happen,” said Lehrmann.
At the time of the alleged rape Lehrmann had worked for Senator Reynolds for about a year, while Higgins had just joined the team after working for Steven Ciobo.
Lehrmann told the AFP he didn’t have sex with Higgins, consensual or otherwise, but said he had been flirty and gotten close to her at the 88mph club hours before the alleged rape.
How a night of staff drinks unfolded
On the evening of March 22 in 2019 Lehrmann had met Austen Wenke, then media adviser to Peter Dutton, at the Kingston Hotel before going to drinks at The Dock.
There he met Higgins, Lauren Gain, who then worked in the department of defence, and defence industry contractors.
CCTV footage played to the court shows the group packed around a table and Higgins wearing a long white dress.
Higgins consumed 11 drinks at The Dock and has told the jury she was the drunkest she’d ever been in her life, saying she was beyond “schoolies drunk”.
Lehrmann said he bought one or two rounds of drinks and “wasn’t intoxicated at all” at The Dock, saying his recollection wasn’t 100% but said he would have mingled and spoken to everybody, including Higgins.
Lehrmann said as The Dock closed he suggested he, Higgins, Gain and Wenke go to the 88mph club because he liked '80s music and it was one of his favourite night spots in Canberra.
Lehrmann said he switched to vodkas after they caught an Uber to the 80s-themed venue in Civic because you “don’t have a beer at an '80s club” but said he didn’t remember buying rounds of drinks, saying he believed that was Gain.
He said he remembers having a “boogie” on the light-up dance floor and sitting in a booth with other members of the group.
Lehrmann said Wenke and Gain got quite close and were touching each other but said he didn’t see them kiss.
“They were quite close that night … touching and things like that,” he said.
Lehrmann said he got close to Higgins but described his behaviour as “quite friendly”, saying he was opening doors for her and keeping her away from other men in the nightclub.
“I don’t think I would have done anything out of the ordinary other than what I would do for other friends who are girls who are out,” he said.
Higgins has told the jury at one point in the evening she fell over, Lehrmann helping her to her feet.
The court heard in the defence opening submission that Lehrmann and Higgins were seen kissing at the 88mph club. Higgins has told the jury she doesn’t remember whether they did and Lehrmann was not asked during the AFP interview.
Higgins has also told the jury Lehrmann tried to awkwardly kiss her a couple of weeks before the alleged rape outside of The Kingston at work drinks.
She described the attempted kiss was awkward and said he seemed embarrassed when she rejected him.
Higgins fell forward on some stairs as the group prepared to leave 88mph, scraping her knee.
Lehrmann, Higgins at Parliament House
Lehrmann said he needed to return to Parliament House that night for keys to his apartment that he shared with his then girlfriend.
He said Higgins also said she needed to pick up something from work but didn’t say what and he didn’t ask her.
Higgins did not say in evidence she needed to collect anything, only that Lehrmann told her he did and she had agreed to stop at work on the way home.
Lehrmann said he lived five minutes from Parliament House and offered to share an Uber with Higgins because he was “trying to be a gentleman”.
The pair arrived at about 1.40am on Sunday March 23 in 2019.
Lehrmann said they were dropped off at the rear entrance of Parliament House before they had to pass through security, buzzing the on duty officers because neither had their pass.
In audio previously played to the court Lehrmann said he was at Parliament House to collect documents, not keys as he told police, and he is not carrying documents when he’s recorded on CCTV leaving Parliament House at about 2.30am.
Lehrmann said he and Higgins were both able to sign themselves through security although he said she had trouble with her black high heels and belongings as she went through the scanner.
He said they discussed Wenke and Gain “hooking up” as they entered parliament but said Higgins seemed fine as they went through security and said their intoxication level was both “moderate”, putting them both at seven out of 10.
Higgins has told the jury she was “obliterated” alcohol at that point and remembers signing in but when she saw the form it was not her handwriting.
Lehrmann said if he thought Higgins she was too drunk he would have put her back in the Uber but said she seemed all right.
“There was nothing in my mind that said I need to be looking after her,” he said.
Senator Reynolds' office
Lehrmann said when they entered the suite of Senator Reynolds, then the Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds, then his and Higgins' boss, she turned right towards the minister’s office while he went left towards his desk.
Lehrmann said it was unusual Higgins went into Minister Reynolds' office and said “he wouldn’t dream of going into the Minister’s office”.
“I never saw Brittany again in the office,” he said
“When she turned right I thought she was working on what she needed to work on.”
Lehrmann said his head was in his work and he wasn’t thinking about what Higgins was doing and he didn’t get involved in other people’s work business.
Higgins has alleged she drunkenly passed out on Reynolds' couch before waking “mid rape”, which the prosecution has said must have occurred after she and Mr Lehrmann entered the suite and before he left at about 2.30am.
Lehrmann said he collected what he needed and did some work on some Question Time folders, largely sticking tabs marking certain discussion topics for Question Time and said he couldn’t remember if he did any work on the computer.
Missed calls from his girlfriend
When Lehrmann was asked why he missed a number of phone calls from his girlfriend during the period he was in the office with Higgins he said his phone was probably on silent at the end of his desk.
He said Hall was likely calling him because he said he’d return home around midnight.
Lehrmann left Parliament House at about 2.30am.
When asked if he had sex with Higgins, Lehrmann said he didn’t and said he wouldn’t have behaved anything beyond “a bit flirtatious” because he was in a relationship at the time.
“I’m confident I didn’t, it was such an innocuous night,” he said.
“For staff to be out drinking it was not an unusual night.”
Lehrmann has denied any sexual activity took place with Higgins, consensual or otherwise, and the defence witnesses have yet to be heard by the jury.
Higgins said her dress was bunched up around her waist and Lehrmann, who she said was still partially clothed, was on top of her having non-consensual sex with her.
She said she cried no about a half a dozen times and when Lehrmann eventually stopped. They made eye contact before he left.
Security guards said they later found Higgins naked on a couch before she later woke up, vomited in the minister’s toilet and composed herself before leaving Parliament House at about 10am.
'Security breach'
The Tuesday after the alleged rape – March 26 in 2019 – Lehrmann was called into the office of Fiona Brown, then chief-of-staff to Senator Reynolds.
AFP officer Marcus Boorman tells Lehrmann in the video that Brown has told investigators that he told her he went with Higgins to Reynolds’ suite to drink whiskey and that he consumed about two glasses.
Lehrmann replied he didn’t have any alcohol. “That was certainly not the reason I would have stated it,” he said adding Brown described the incident as a security breach.
Lehrmann said he wasn’t allowed to bring a phone or notebook into the meeting with Brown and said he found working with her difficult.
He said he had often drunk with the minister for whom he worked and his fellow staffers in the ministerial office, saying it “happened all the time” but said there probably wasn’t any liquor in Ms Reynolds' office at the time because they’d just moved in.
“I’d be surprised if a minister’s office didn’t have alcohol,” said Lehrmann.
Political staffers 'treated poorly'
Lehrmann said political culture was ruthless and the ousting of then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2018 had prompted him to quit before the 2019 election.
He said at the time of the leadership spill he was working for Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie.
“Bridget McKenzie was one minister notorious for treating their staff poorly, me included,” he said.
Lehrmann said he started working in parliament from the 2013 election and said while a lot of attention had been given to the issue of women in politics more broadly “the culture was horrendous”.
“I was not a member of a political party … but I was there to do my policy work,” he said.
“I was there to receive the advice of departments and write good policy.
“A lot of people would use it for party political things. I’d had enough. I’d worked 14-15 hours a day long enough.”
Lehrmann told investigators he was studying a double degree of policy and arts at the Australian National University but said he had “got a bit lazy” with his studies when he began working in politics.
Social media trolling
Lehrmann said around mid January (2021) he received a message request from David Sharaz, who he later learned was Higgins’ partner, that said something along the lines of :
“Hey Bruce, you might remember me from Linda Reynolds’ office”.
Lehrmann said when he went to reply he found Sharaz had blocked him.
He said a number of fake Twitter accounts impersonating him with names such as “Bruce the rapist” sprung up and told investigators he’d receive messages saying “disgusting things” and said the trolling was relentless.
Lehrmann said he dismissed the fake accounts as trolling by keyboard warriors and didn’t think anything of it until February 15, when the story detailing Higgins allegations was published.
The trial continues.
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