“I recommend to you it’s a major matter as a result of it instantly follows your alleged sexual assault,” Whybrow stated.
“Properly, as I used to be being raped it wasn’t my major concern the place my costume was. I used to be deeply extra involved concerning the penis in my vagina that I didn’t need there,” Higgins replied angrily.
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“It wasn’t about my costume. I wasn’t involved about my costume in that second. However the subsequent morning after I wakened and vomited into a rest room, the very first thing I did wasn’t, ‘the place is my costume? Is it on my physique or is it on the bottom?‘”
Whybrow pressed: “Ms Higgins, you perceive that I’m asserting that that may be a fabrication that you just had been sexually assaulted, don’t you?”
Higgins replied: “I perceive that that’s your assertion. It’s insulting, however I perceive it.”
Earlier on Thursday, Higgins had stated she “thought my costume was on my particular person” and bunched up round her waist like a belt.
“I didn’t bear in mind having to place it again on. I settle for that that could be incorrect,” she stated.
‘I might by no means do this’
Whybrow put to Higgins that she made up the sexual assault allegation as a result of she was involved about her job after she “handed out drunk” within the workplace of her then-boss and defence business minister Linda Reynolds in Parliament Home.
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“My job is simply not that necessary, I’m sorry,” Higgins stated. “I might by no means do this.”
She agreed that she lied when she instructed police and an ex-boyfriend she had gone to the physician after the alleged assault. She stated she was “placating” her former boyfriend, as she was when she stated that she was taking care of herself and “doing okay”.
Higgins additionally agreed that she didn’t have an appointment when she texted Reynolds’ then chief of workers asking for the day without work to go to the physician.
She stated this was not a lie as a result of she had an intention on the time to go, however didn’t observe via as a result of she was “terrified”.
New data
Whybrow put to Higgins throughout her proof that “as you discover out additional data you adapt and evolve your narrative to suit the brand new data, do you agree with that?”
“No, however I settle for the place I’m unsuitable, and I attempt to apply it in each bizarre circumstance I find yourself in to present probably the most sincere reply I can,” Higgins stated.
The pre-interview
Higgins accepted on Thursday it was a lie when she agreed with Wilkinson’s suggestion in a pre-interview, the audio of which was recorded however not broadcast, that Lehrmann had eliminated her “panties”. She instructed the court docket she was “too embarrassed to confess that I wasn’t sporting underwear that night time”.
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Higgins later sought to “right the file” in court docket and say she had instructed the reality about not sporting underwear within the Ten broadcast, to the police, and within the prison proceedings, and “had a lie of omission” within the “dialog in passing”.
Justice Michael Lee described her feedback as akin to a reply to a query in re-examination by Ten’s barrister quite than a correction to a particular query requested by Whybrow in his cross-examination, and stated he would “take it primarily as client-based re-examination”.
The alleged assault
Higgins broke down in tears in court docket on Wednesday as she gave proof alleging Lehrmann raped her within the workplace of their then-boss within the early hours of March 23, 2019, and once more on Thursday throughout hours of cross-examination.
The court docket has heard Lehrmann left the Parliament Home workplace at about 2.30am on the morning of the alleged assault whereas Higgins didn’t go away till about 10am.
Lehrmann has insisted the alleged assault “didn’t occur” and the pair had no sexual contact.
If the court docket finds Lehrmann was recognized by The Mission broadcast, which didn’t title him, Ten and Wilkinson are searching for to rely partially on a reality defence and show to the civil customary – on the stability of possibilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins.
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