Brittany Higgins was likely five times the legal limit to drive – 0.23 – on the night she was allegedly raped and she weighed just over 60 kilos, the Federal Court has heard.
Channel Ten’s barrister Matt Collins KC told the Federal Court on Tuesday that a toxicologist will be called to give evidence about Ms Higgins’ state on inebriation on the night in question.
She was captured on parliamentary CCTV on the night walking through the security checkpoint before walking to Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds’ office.
Ms Higgins was in the witness box for the first time on Tuesday during the defamation trial after Mr Lehrmann concluded his evidence.
Dr Collins commenced by asking her a “strange question” which was how much she weighed at the time of the alleged rape.
“I was much thinner at the time. Early 60 kilos,’’ she said. Ms Higgins said she was around 5 foot 7 tall.
Justice Michael Lee, who is presiding over the case, has already heard evidence that Ms Higgins drank 12 vodkas and no non-alcoholic drinks.
Dr Collins said she appears to have eaten one slice of pizza and a few hot chips.
In previous evidence, Mr Lehrmann denied he was trying to get Brittany Higgins drunk that night.
CCTV footage shows Ms Higgins consuming six spirit-based drinks, two of which were bought for her by Lehrmann
Mr Lehrmann initially told the federal court he could not remember buying her drinks but later conceded the CCTV suggested he had.
“I don’t recall buying her two vodkas, no,” Mr Lehrmann said.
“I’m happy to be corrected. It’s very hard to recall specifically, I’m sorry.”
Dr Collins also told the court a lip reader would give evidence he moved three drinks closer to Higgins on the table and said they were “all hers, all hers”.
“You moved them to the edge of the table so that they were close to Ms Higgins,” Dr Collins said.
“You were trying to get Ms Higgins drunk.”
“No, I disagree with that,’’ Mr Lehrmann replied.
Dr Collins told the Federal Court on Tuesday that Ten would call a former media adviser, Lauren Gain, who would allege Lehrmann touched and “pashed” Ms Higgins at Canberra bar 88mph on March 22, 2019.
Mr Lehrmann has previously denied this account.
“In the course of his evidence, Mr Lehrmann made a scandalous allegation that Ms Gain had colluded with Ms Higgins to make up false evidence against him,” Dr Collins said.
“This from a law student. I invited him to withdraw the allegation, but he declined to do so. The allegation is without foundation.”
Dr Collins said Ms Gain texted a person in Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds’ office on March 23 stating, “Brittany hooked up with Bruce.”
“So there is a contemporaneous record supporting Ms Gain’s recollection,” Dr Collins said.
“She did not make it up.”
Ms Higgins swore an oath to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” at 4:13pm.
The former Liberal staffer said she graduated from high school in 2011 and “bounced around” before attending university.
“I worked in hospitality. I worked in retail. I worked in real estate,’’ she said.
Ms Higgins said she worked for a radio station for a time and was a news presenter and then joined a state MPs office.
“I was campaigning on my university campus for freedom of speech on campus in relation to political and religious clubs,’’ she said.
“And that was how I first came into contact with a few people in Liberal Party.”
She worked for a state Queensland MP Sam O’Connor before moving to the office of a federal MP and Liberal frontbencher Steve Ciobo.
“I wanted to work my way up through the ranks. I wanted to be a media adviser,’’ she said.
Initially, she also worked on the front desk as a receptionist and assisted the media staff in responding to questions from journalists.
Higgins to give ‘graphic, distressing’ evidence
Bruce Lehrmann’s claim that Brittany Higgins fabricated a rape claim to save her job is “monstrous” and “incoherent”, Dr Collins said.
Ms Higgins arrived at court with her partner David Sharaz and her friend and supporter and former Labor staffer Emma Webster.
Opening Network 10’s case, barrister Dr Collins told Justice Michael Lee that the claim she made up a rape claim was “a monstrous thing.”
“The theory is apparently that Ms Higgins saw Mr Lehrmann emerge from his meeting with Ms (Fiona) Brown on the 26th of March and start collecting his belongings, surmised that he had been sacked because they had come back to Parliament House on a Saturday morning, thought it was inevitable that she was about to suffer the same fate and so fabricated an allegation of rape in order to save her job,” Dr Collins said.
“If we’ve understood that theory correctly it is, with respect to our friends, incoherent. First and foremost, it will be a monstrous thing, as Ms Higgins herself will tell you, to fabricate an allegation of rape.”
Mr Collins KC said that if Network Ten’s justification defence fails, “failure of the qualified privilege defence in this case would compel the conclusion of Australia’s defamation laws, at least in force at the time of the program, do not permit the Australian media to report on allegations of this kind.”
He warned that Brittany Higgins will give “graphic and distressing” evidence of the alleged rape and that she was then discouraged from pursuing a complaint.
“She was a junior employee for a government minister, on the eve of a federal election the government was expected to lose,” Dr Collins said.
“She perceived that her complaint presented a political problem that put her dream job at risk.”
Dr Collins KC said that Mr Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network 10 is “misconceived” and “bound to fail”.
Lisa Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC said that her client had been a journalist since 1978.
“She’d prefer that I not say that that’s longer than I’ve been alive,’’ Ms Chrysanthou SC said.
“You wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at us.”
She said the Network Ten team were diligent, experienced professionals.
“On the 18 January 2021, my client, Lisa Wilkinson received an email from David Sharaz,’’ she said.
The email stated, “I’ve got a sensitive story surrounding a sexual assault at Parliament House. a woman who was pressured by the Liberal Party and female cabinet minister not to pursue it.”
She said Mr Sharaz knew that few days of work experience at the trade show, and they briefly kept in contact, since then, so she knew who he was.
Earlier, Bruce Lehrmann accused Brittany Higgins partner David Sharaz of sending him an anonymous email that warned him “coming for you” before The Project broadcast an interview with the staffer.
The Federal Court was told on Tuesday that Mr Lehrmann received a threatening email from an address on January 25, 2021 – about a month before Brittany Higgins’ allegations were aired for the first time.
The email was from someone who appeared to be impersonating him and was titled “coming for you.”
The email referenced Grace Tame, who had won The Australian of the Year award on the same day.
“A woman spoke about what happened to her tonight, and she’s Australian of the Year,’’ the email stated.
“I want you to think about what you did, and what might be around the corner for you. It’s inspiring when justice is delivered and the truth comes out.
“You know what they said: The truth will set you free. It’s going to be a magical 2021.”
In court on Tuesday, under re-examination, his barrister Steven Whybrow asked Mr Lehrmann if he knew who sent the email.
“With the benefit of hindsight, have you formed any views as to the origins of that email?,’’ he asked.
Mr Lehrmann said he did believe he knew who sent it.
“I have a view that that was Ms Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz,’’ he said.
Ms Higgins sat in court this afternoon with her lawyer Leon Zwier as Mr Lehrmann concluded his cross examination.
Dr Collins said that she went public with her allegation in February 2021.
“On the 15th of February 2021, Brittany Higgins went public with the allegation that she had been raped in Australian Parliament House by another staffer in the early hours,’’ he said.
“On a couch in the office of the honourable Senator Linda Reynolds, who had recently been appointed the Minister for Defence Industry after a night when she had been out drinking together with other ministerial and departmental staff.”
Dr Collins said the article did not name Mr Lehrmann and nor did the Ten Network broadcast of an interview conducted by Lisa Wilkinson.
“For reasons that will be fully explained in the course of the evidence..the alleged rape was the context for the program.
“But the theme of the program, and most of the time was devoted to exposing alleged inadequacies in the manner in which Higgins allegation was managed by the then government.
“The program necessarily involves reporting that the alleged rape had occurred inside Parliament House...(but) a balance had to be struck between providing enough information for viewers to understand the relationship and power dynamics between his delirium and Ms Higgins, without inadvertently misidentifying another male staffer as the person involved.”
Earlier, Mr Lehrmann concluded his evidence
On Tuesday, Ms Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC questioned Mr Lehrmann about answers he gave to journalist Liam Bartlett during his second Spotlight Interview.
Mr Lehrmann was asked about his barrister Steve Whybrow SC claim that Mr Lehrmann was close to being convicted and that if it weren’t for the Logies speech delay he would have been in “more trouble”.
“So what I want to suggest to you is rather than feel upset at my client that she engaged in conduct which had a prejudicial impact on your criminal trial, you actually think that the delay caused by the Logies speech saved you from conviction.”
“No, I disagree,” Mr Lehrmann replied.
Dr Collins told the Federal Court that Network 10 will call former Liberal staffers, Ms Higgins’ mother and father, police officers and journalists as witnesses.
“Ms Higgins reached out to her father for support,” Dr Collins said. “She didn’t tell him that she’d been sexually assaulted but she did say that something bad had happened at work and she needed him,’’ he said.
Witnesses will include a Liberal staffer Austin Wenke, who worked in Peter Dutton’s office and Lauren Gain who both attended a bar called The Dock, where Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins were seen drinking on the night in question.
“We will call Austin Wenke and Lauren Gain who were with Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins at both The Dock and 88mph on 22 March 2019,” Dr Collins said.
“Ms Gain, we expect, will give evidence of seeing Mr Lehrmann touching and pashing Ms Higgins,’’ he said.
Dr Collins said he would also call Catherine Cripps, “a rape crisis counsellor, who will detail her discussions with Ms Higgins when she first met with her on the 8th of April 2019.
“We will call three police officers to whom Ms Higgins made contemporaneous reports of having been raped,” Dr Collins said.
