Cross examination of Brittany Higgins has entered into its fourth day in the Lehrmann v Network Ten defamation trial.
The Federal Court of Australia did not sit on Monday to hear proceedings of the trial but returned today in what is predicted to be the final day of Steve Whybrow SC, Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer, questioning Higgins over her evidence.
Women’s Agenda is covering the Lehrmann v Network Ten defamation trial as it happens, with former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann accusing Lisa Wilkinson and The Project of defamation. The case is in reference to an interview between Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins, who accused Lehrmann of raping her inside Parliament House in March 2019.
Here’s what we learned in today’s proceedings.
Content warning: This article contains references to rape and sexual assault.
Deleted messages
Whybrow first took Higgins to text messages on her phone, mainly sent to her friend and former boyfriend, Ben Dillaway. The messages were tendered as evidence in court today.
Lehrmann’s barrister pointed out one particular message sent from Higgins’ phone to Dillaway that no longer existed on Higgins’ phone: “I’m clearing out my phone ahead of the police.”
Whybrow then noted how certain messages had been deleted off Higgins’ phone, but remained on the phones of the people whom she had sent the messages to, including her housemate from 2019, Alex Humphries, and someone she had matched with on Bumble, Alex Woods.
Woods worked as a security guard in Parliament House and Higgins had also planned to go on a date with.
Higgins denied she had done this intentionally and recalled she had “archived” several text message conversations and even “blocked” around 100 people following the alleged rape.
Higgins: “I’ve been highly traumatised and being harassed about this issue over and over for over five years about my rape… And now everyone’s trying to make it about some random Bumble date though. I hung out with him once.”
There was another message to Dillaway that no longer exists on her phone, where Higgins said the response from the rape was “all beyond strange”. While Whybrow suggested she had deliberately deleted that message, Higgins said she is “glad” that message has emerged, as it “corroborates” her evidence and what she told to Wilkinson and the media in 2021.
The attempted kiss
Questioning then moved to when Lehrmann allegedly attempted to kiss Higgins after a social gathering with Senator Linda Reynolds’ team in March 2019, approximately a week before the alleged rape.
It was an event that was only brought forth in Higgins’ evidence after she was “reminded” of the incident from other testimonies in the criminal trial, including from her colleague Nikki Hamer.
Whybrow questioned the legitimacy of this evidence when Higgins said the event “wasn’t even in my mind”.
Whybrow: “His attempt to kiss you a week before he, on your version… sexually assaulted you… was not on your mind?”
Higgins: “No, it really wasn’t.”
22 March 2019
In one of the final bits of evidence tendered during the cross examination of Higgins, Whybrow played CCTV footage of the Dock Hotel on the night of the alleged rape, where Higgins and her Bumble date, Nick, sat at the table and spoke for a while.
At one point, Higgins left the table and moved to a different table, where Lauren Gain, Austin Wenke and Bruce Lehrmann were seated.
Whybrow suggested she had “ghosted” and “abandoned” Nick, despite previous evidence that he was being “bullied” by other people at the table for wearing a suit, which is why he left.
“Honestly, I was so drunk at that point, but I did ignore my date and I was really rude,” Higgins said.
Higgins told Samantha Maiden in the news.com.au article that she was “10/10 drunk” the night of the alleged rape. Whybrow then played the CCTV footage of going through security at Parliament House.
Whybrow: I suggest to you that telling Ms Maiden that you were 10/10 drunk was a lie?
Higgins: Are you kidding?
Higgins continued the rest of the cross examination speaking through tears.
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