Higgins' former boss denies helping Bruce Lehrmann's lawyers
The prosecution in the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial has closed its case.
The prosecution in the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial has closed its case.
Senator Linda Reynolds advised defence lawyers to check Brittany Higgins’ text messages and asked for a transcript of her former adviser’s evidence but has denied giving “tips” or being politically invested in the outcome of the high-profile trial.
The ACT Supreme Court on Monday heard Senator Reynolds’ partner sat in court while Higgins was in the witness box but the former cabinet minister denied discussing her former staffer’s evidence with him.
The 10th day of Bruce Lehrmann’s trial for the alleged rape of Ms Higgins on Senator Reynolds' ministerial couch on March 23, 2019, also heard from former cabinet minister Michaelia Cash and her chief of staff Daniel Try.
The Oz was in court
10.27am: Higgins' first meeting with police
Brittany Higgins told the sexual assault team within the Canberra police that she didn’t want to make a formal report about an alleged rape until after the election, and “seemed nervous” during her meeting with them.
Detective Senior Constable Sarah Harman told the ACT Supreme Court she was tasked with investigating Ms Higgins’ allegation on April 4, following the incident in March, and revealed Higgins’ had initially not been able to remember the club she went to after drinking at The Dock earlier that night.
Higgins told the detective she left at 8am the morning following the incident, at which point security in parliament asked her if she was alright.
Higgins said she was concerned about reporting the incident because the man she alleged raped her, Bruce Lehrmann, was “well connected”.
Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Detective Harman said Higgins also didn’t want to pursue a report until after an election, due later that year.
“She said she didn’t want to firstly report what had happened as she was worried about workplace issues,” Harman said.
“She said she may want to go ahead with a report following the election.”
Harman said Higgins never mentioned a bruise, which the court heard earlier in the trial she had taken a photo of as evidence of the alleged rape.
Australian Federal Police digital forensics examiner Peter Reid confirmed he found no messages on Brittany Higgins phone referring to a bruise until February 2021.
However, he was not able to confirm the time and date of the photograph Higgins took of a bruise on her leg because the image was uploaded on her Google drive.
“When images are uploaded or shared on platforms such as… a Google drive or iCloud… the metadata is removed by the platform,” Reid told the court.
During her cross examination Lehrmann’s lawyer Steve Whybrow suggested there was no reference to the bruise until she went to journalists with the story in 2021.
On Friday, Higgins said she sent the photo to journalists Samantha Maiden and Lisa Wilkinson but said before making a complaint to police .
"Why would I send it around?"
When Whybrow suggested to her the bruise was a "fabrication", Higgins gave a hollow laugh and replied: "Yeah sure. I reject you completely."
10.36am - Michaelia Cash enters the witness stand
WA Senator Michaelia Cash has dialled in from Perth into the ACT Supreme Court to begin her evidence in the Brittany Higgins rape trial.
Senator Cash was Higgins’ boss after she left the office of WA Senator Linda Reynolds, following the alleged rape.
Higgins left Cash’s office in February 2021 before going public with her allegations.
10.42am - What Cash knew and when
WA Senator Michaelia Cash says she became aware of an allegation of sexual assault in Linda Reynolds office around February 5 2021.
She said she had been made aware of a media inquiry from the Canberra Times involving Brittany Higgins in October 2019, but wasn’t aware at the time it was regarding an incident of sexual assault.
“To the best of my knowledge it was in regards to a security incident in Linda Reynolds' office when Brittany had worked there,” Senator Cash told the jury.
It follows Higgins telling the court earlier in the trial that she had had conversations with Senator Cash, but the then-Minister “pretended” like she didn’t know what had happened.
Cash said that when the media inquiry into an incident was brought to her in October 2019, Higgins had been “embarrassed” because of the security incident.
“Brittany was embarrassed because it was in regards to herself and a security incident in Minister Reynolds’ office,” she said.
“She and a staff member had gone in (to Senator Reynolds’ office) after a night drinking… (she was) potentially intoxicated.”
“Brittany had fallen asleep on a couch and security found her I believe the next day.”
11.01am - 'I thought it was a security incident': Cash
Senator Cash denied she was aware of a sexual assault until Higgins left her office in early 2021.
“I had always thought it was a security breach in an office (until then),” Cash said.
Drumgold suggested it would be “politically embarrassing” for information regarding one party staffer assaulting another.
“Absolutely not,” Cash replied.
“I don’t know how it could be politically embarrassing.
“The first time I ever heard the word rape, was in questions from a journalist… Samantha Maiden… on the 12th of February 2021.”
11.10am - When things changed
Senator Cash said once Higgins revealed the alleged assault to her, she made clear that there would be “every possible support if she wanted it”.
“I said to her… if she wanted to go to police she could, or words to that affect,” Cash said.
Senator Cash said she was prepared to keep Higgins in her employment after she had been made aware of the allegation.
“She was a very good employee,” she said.
11.19am - 'Political suicide' if the alleged incident was kept secret
Senator Cash says it would have been "political suicide" to have tried to keep an alleged assault between two party staffers secret.
It followed prosecutor Shane Drumgold grilling Senator Cash on her assertion that she was not aware that an incident in March 2019 involving Higgins had been "sexual" in nature.
Drumgold asked her if it would have been "politically embarrassing" for the assault to be made public, to which Senator Cash said "absolutely not".
He asked her if she was familiar with the term "plausible deniability".
"I don’t understand what you're trying to ask me," Cash said.
During the cross examination Defence lawyer Steve Whybrow asked Senator Cash if it would have in fact been "political suicide to try cover up sex assault between two staff".
"Correct," she said in reply.
"Hence my confusion with the previous line of questioning (from Drumgold)."
11.52am - 'It was not Britney's fault': government responds to first media inquiry
WA Senator Michaelia Cash’s chief of staff Daniel Try says he received a call from then-minister Linda Reynolds in October 2019 about an “incident” involving Brittany Higgins, but was given few details beyond the fact “it was not Brittany’s fault”.
Try said Senator Reynolds had received a media inquiry from the Canberra Times in October 2019 regarding “some sort of incident”, and called Try to tell him she would be sending someone from her office to speak to Higgins, who was at that time working for Senator Cash.
“In October 2019 I became aware of an incident, very little info was provided, I didn’t know the extent of the allegation that was being raised at the time,” Try told the court.
“Linda Reynolds called me and she said she was about to send someone around from her office to talk to Brittany because there had been media inquiry about an incident in (her) when Brittany had worked with her.
“She didn’t go into detail but said it wasn’t Brittany fault… Looking back she was careful not to go into detail.”
Try said Higgins seemed “upset” when he told her about the inquiry, and he left her to speak Senator Reynolds’ staff member once they arrived at Senator Cash’s office.
He said in a discussion with Higgins’ following that meeting, she told him “emphatically” the issue had been taken care of and she didn’t want to take it further.
Try said he told Higgins “we should give Michaelia a heads up about this inquiry”, to which Ms Higgins agreed.
“We had a brief discussion… about this particular point in time she mentioned the other staffer involved had left the building,” he said.
“I said ‘was it Bruce (Lehrmann)’… because I remember he left Linda Reynolds’ office suddenly in 2019.”
Try said Higgins confirmed the other staffer involved was Lehrmann.
12pm - Lehrmann returns to Canberra
Try said after the meeting with Higgins, Senator Cash "gave Brittany a hug" and made sure she felt supported.
He said there was "no further impetus" from Senator Reynolds' office to do anything further.
"I checked with her media advisor a couple of days later whether there had been anything further, the media advisor said no," Try said.
Try said it was "natural" that he alerted Senator Cash to the media inquiry.
He said he "checked on Brittany a couple of times over the next couple of days" following the discussion about the incident.
In mid-2020, Mr Try said Higgins' raised concern with Lehrmann being in Canberra at one point, and was worried he had a parliamentary pass because "she didn't want to see him".
"Brittany had come to me, she said this was of concern and... I tried to help her as best as possible," he said.
"I made inquiries... I called the Senate Presidents' office and asked them essentially about... an individual. I think I said this related to a security incident. They said they'd find out for me and a few days later they came back and said he (Lehrmann) didn't have a pass."
Try said he was still not aware of the full details of the incident at that point and didn't think it would "be appropriate" to ask Higgins or Senator Reynolds for further information.
Higgins handed in her resignation letter on January 29, 2021.
When asked if he checked on her welfare, Try said he was "always checking on staff welfare".
12.07pm - Cash's chief of staff denies knowing about sexual assault allegation
Try said the next time the incident was mentioned was when Higgins came into his office on January 28, 2021 for a discussion.
"Her main concern was that she didn't want to take calls from the Canberra Times journalist who had initially made the inquiry in 2019 and asked me if I could find out who that journalist was," he said.
"I was quite surprised she was so upset... she was crying. I wasn't fully aware of what she was trying to say but I was just doing my best to comfort her."
Higgins revealed to the court earlier in the trial she had recorded that conversation with Try in order to corroborate her allegation.
Try said Higgins' resignation was "completely unexpected" and he was "very surprised".
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold suggested to Try that he had known more in October 2019 than he had alleged.
"That's not true," he said.
Drumgold said Try's role was to "protect against political fallout", which he tried to do after the incident was brought to his attention.
"That's not true," Try said.
12.19pm - Friend learns of 'super f..ked thing' from Higgins
Brittany Higgins’ friend and Queensland MP Samuel O’Connor says he first found out about her alleged rape in April 2019, which Higgins described as a “super f..ked up thing that happened”.
O’Connor, who was elected to Queensland state parliament in 2017, said Higgins “alluded” to something having happened over a text message in March, but revealed the alleged assault in a phone call on April 19, 2019.
On the phone call, Higgins detailed the night of the incident, where she went drinking with colleagues before getting in an Uber with Bruce Lehrmann and entering Parliament House together.
She told O’Connor that Lehrmann allegedly raped her in Senator Linda Reynolds' ministerial office.
Lerhmann has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
O’Connor said he was “very angry” about the situation, and remembered Higgins being concerned about going public.
“I definitely remember her being worried that this would defined her, that she would be known for this instead of being good for her job,” he said.
2.50pm - Higgins' first boss gives her evidence
WA Senator Linda Reynolds is appearing in court on Monday afternoon for the high profile rape trial involving Brittany Higgins.
Senator Reynolds was originally due to give her evidence later in the week, but was moved forwards after the witness list was cut back.
The court has already heard from Senator Reynolds former chief of staff, Fiona Brown, who said Higgins had been supported to go to police by Senator Reynolds.
Senator Reynolds wore a pink blazer over black top, with a pearl necklace, as she took the stand.
3.10pm - Reynolds knew 'very little'
WA Senator Linda Reynolds, who was defence industry minister at the time of Brittany Higgins' alleged rape, says she first became aware of some kind of incident about three days after the event, but at first knew “very little”.
Senator Reynolds said she received a call on March 26, during the day of her first cabinet meeting as a senior minister, from her chief of staff Fiona Brown.
“I remember I received a call from Ms Brown advising me she had been advised of a very serious security breach,” she said.
“Two staff had entered the office out of hours, which is highly unusual and inappropriate.”
“I was certainly surprised and shocked.”
Senator Reynolds said at first she wasn’t aware anyone had gone into her personal suite and only that the office had been accessed.
In the following days, Senator Reynolds said Brown was getting “concerned” because of Higgins’ behaviour, as she was getting increasingly “upset”.
Senator Reynolds said she thought Higgins was upset about the “serious security breach”, and Brown didn’t tell her any further details about the incident on the previous Saturday.
“We had a staff member who was upset, my chief of staff was concerned about her, and that made me concerned,” Reynolds said.
Senator Reynolds asked Brown to organise a meeting with Higgins on Monday, April 1, to discuss the incident.
“Fiona and Brittany came into the office (on Monday) and we had a discussion… I said to her it was about the security incident and I wanted to know from her perspective what happened,” she said.
“She was very apologetic, she was embarrassed and she did apologise.
“She also indicated she knew it was not the right thing to do and she didn’t want to lose her job.”
Reynolds said Higgins’ job was not at risk at that stage.
3.20pm - Reynolds sought evidence
WA Senator Linda Reynolds sought transcripts from Brittany Higgins’ evidence and revealed her partner had been sitting in the ACT Supreme Court during the trial.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold grilled Senator Reynolds about her efforts to seek Higgins’ evidence.
She confirmed that two hours into Higgins’ cross examination, she texted the defence asking them to send a copy of the transcript to her lawyer.
Senator Reynolds said she was advised that was inappropriate, and said her partner had never spoken to her about what he heard in court.
3.28pm - Higgins told Reynolds she woke up in her office
Reynolds said she didn’t feel she was the right person to talk to when Higgins began getting upset in their meeting about a week after Higgins’ alleged rape.
“She explained during the course of the discussion that she was very drunk (that night),” Senator Reynolds said.
“She did mention to me that she woke up the next morning and… mentioned that she got dressed and it was at that point she was a little more distressed.
“That’s when I said as her boss, I’m not a trained counsellor, I’m not the person to be having the conversation with. I suggested to her she might rather have this conversation with someone more qualified and she should talk to Australian Federal Police.”
Senator Reynolds said Higgins didn’t agree right away to go to police, but followed up with Senator Reynolds’ chief of staff Fiona Brown later that day to do so.
3.37pm - Reynolds rejects being 'politically invested' in rape trial
WA Senator Linda Reynolds told Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers that text messages between Brittany Higgins and her former staffer Nicole Hamer “might be able to shed some light” on the case.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold grilled Senator Reynolds on her texts to the defence, which he said amounted to “injecting” herself into the case.
“Do you think it’s appropriate to give the defence lawyer cross examination tips?” Mr Drumgold asked.
Reynolds said that she had met with Drumgold and defence lawyer Steve Whybrow on many occasions and there was “never any suggestion it was inappropriate to talk to either with you”.
She “categorically rejected” the assertion that she was “politically invested” in the case.
3.53pm - Reynolds worried about media coverage for Higgins
WA Senator Linda Reynolds said she wasn’t concerned about an assault allegation coming out during the 2019 election, and that was not her main focus in dealing with the incident involving Brittany Higgins.
She said Higgins was given the option of going to Perth with her for the campaign, staying in Canberra or going to Brisbane to be with her family while working remotely.
“Were you concerned this would come out during an election campaign?” prosecutor Shane Drumgold asked Senator Reynolds.
“No.” she replied.
Following the Coalition’s win at the May election, Senator Reynolds said she offered Higgins another job.
“She thanked me but said she had had some other job offers and she was going to take a job with Michaelia Cash,” she said.
In October 2019, Senator Reynolds received a media inquiry regarding an incident in her office involving Higgins in March.
“It related to a security breach, an incident in my office, earlier in the year,” she said.
“My recollection is they did have Brittany’s name. When they (my staff) said that to me I was quite concerned.
“The worst thing for Brittany would be for her seeing that for the first time in paper the following day.”
Reynolds said she didn’t tell any staff “all details that had occurred”, and arranged for one of her staff to go to Senator Cash’s office to speak to Higgins and alert her about the inquiry.
Drumgold suggested Reynolds’ main concern in her first meeting with Higgins, where she discussed the incident, was that “this would harm the election”.
“Categorically I reject that assertion, it’s not true,” she said.
Drumgold put to Reynolds that she “adopted an approach that the less you knew about this the better”.
“Absolutely not,” she said.
4.01pm - The prosecution closes
The prosecution in the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial has closed its case, with WA Senator Linda Reynolds the final witness to appear in front of the jury.
Higgins’ partner, David Sharaz was due to appear on Monday but was struck from the witness list.
The prosecution and defence will make their closing arguments on Tuesday.
The Oz will report live from court then.
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