Brittany Higgins has become emotional as she testified to the Federal Court about her alleged rape at Parliament House in 2019.
Key points:
- Bruce Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over coverage of Brittany Higgins's rape allegation
- Ms Higgins took to the witness box in the Federal Court to give details about the alleged rape
- She says she was the most intoxicated she had ever been on the night in question
CONTENT WARNING: This article contains graphic details of sexual assault allegations.
Ms Higgins took to the witness box as part of defamation action Bruce Lehrmann launched against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over an interview on The Project, where Ms Higgins's rape claims were first aired.
Mr Lehrmann told the court yesterday he believes that the interview prejudiced his criminal trial.
That trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and there remain no findings against him.
He has always maintained his innocence.
This morning, Ms Higgins told the court she had no independent memory of going through the metal detector at Parliament House on the night in March 2019, or of being escorted by a security guard to the office of Senator Linda Reynolds.
She said she recalled not speaking in great detail to the security officers about why the pair had gone to Parliament House late at night.
"I kind of just remember standing there and letting him handle it," she said.
Loading...Ms Higgins said she remembered sitting on a ledge overlooking the prime minister's courtyard, and her next memory was being woken up on the couch in Senator Reynolds's private office.
As she gave her account of the alleged rape, she began crying in the witness box.
"My head was in the back corner of the couch, he was on top of me, his arms were over the top of the couch," Ms Higgins told the court.
"He was having sex with me at that point in time, and that was what I first woke up to."
Ms Higgins said she had refused consent "on a loop."
"I don't know how many times I said it," she said through tears.
"He didn't even acknowledge it."
Ms Higgins said she believed Mr Lehrmann ejaculated in her.
'It really freaked me out'
Ms Higgins told the court she did not disclose the alleged rape to her housemates or other friends in the immediate aftermath.
"I wasn't ready to talk to anyone, it had just happened, I was still in shock," Ms Higgins said.
"I didn't leave the house all weekend, I only emerged when I had to go to work on the Monday."
Upon her return to work, Ms Higgins said Mr Lehrmann brought her a takeaway coffee from Aussie's — the Parliament House cafe.
She also saw an email from Mr Lehrmann suggesting he would add her to a particular mailing list, in which he used a smiley face.
"It really freaked me out and still does," Ms Higgins said.
"We'd never had sort of a friendly, social relationship, and suddenly, after he raped me, there was this familiarity and a smiley face."
Ms Higgins said the first person she disclosed the alleged incident to was her then-chief of staff Fiona Brown the following day.
"It was the first time I'd vocalised it, and I said that he was on top of me," she said.
"I didn't use the word rape in that first meeting."
Ms Higgins said it was the first time Ms Brown had learnt there was a sexual element to the pair's entry to the office.
"[Ms Brown] was shocked and upset," she said.
"I was really hysterical crying at that point and she gave me tissues."
The court heard Ms Higgins had a meeting with Senator Reynolds the following week, which took place beside the couch Ms Higgins alleges she was raped on.
Ms Higgins said she quickly became "disassociated" but did not say anything at the time.
"I didn't protest … I didn't make it clear that obviously, it made me feel very uncomfortable," she said.
She then recounted to the court some of Senator Reynolds's comments in the meeting, which she said included that she was "sorry" for her.
Ms Higgins said Senator Reynolds also said: "These are the things that women go through."
"[Senator Reynolds] said 'I didn't think he was capable of this', and from that, I inferred she was talking about Bruce [Lehrmann]."
Brittany Higgins says Bruce Lehrmann was 'handsy' with her at nightclub
Ms Higgins also said Mr Lehrmann was "the nicest he had ever been" to her while they were at Canberra pub The Dock prior to the alleged assault.
"I felt like an equal and I appreciated that, it felt like we were peers almost," she said.
Loading...She then said when the pair and two others moved on from the pub to a nightclub in central Canberra, Mr Lehrmann was "being handsy" with her.
"I remember him having his arm around my shoulder, I remember him touching me," Ms Higgins said.
"I didn't want it, but I was tolerating it."
She said she was the most intoxicated she had ever been in her life on the night in question.
"That was excessive and an abnormality," she told the court.
Interstate election campaign offer
Ms Higgins had accepted an offer to work in Perth during the 2019 federal election campaign.
And today, she repeated her claim that the offer was part of an "ultimatum" from Ms Brown, where the alternative would be to go home to Queensland and not return to work after the election.
She said while she was working in Perth, she had felt suicidal.
"I was just really alone. I didn't know anyone there," Ms Higgins said.
She said people were treating her "weirdly" and were not "overly nice" and it had felt as though she was "abandoned" because of her involvement in Mr Lehrmann's sacking.
"In my time of need, when something horrendous happened, all these good people did nothing," Ms Higgins said.
"I can't explain how hurt I was that I was just abandoned like that."
The court also heard a November 2020 ABC Four Corners program about the treatment of women at Parliament House triggered Ms Higgins's decision to go public with her rape allegation.
She had initially declined to proceed with a police complaint in the aftermath of the alleged 2019 rape.
"I was angry at how [the Liberal party] treated women," Ms Higgins said.
"I couldn't be silent about it any more, because I felt like it wasn't just me.
"It made me feel sick just knowing I was complicit in this … because I hadn't called it out."
Ms Higgins's testimony will continue on Thursday.