Higgins stated Lehrmann left after the alleged assault however she “couldn’t stand up off the sofa” after which she handed out.
“I knew what had occurred however I couldn’t digest it but,” she stated, of waking early within the morning in Reynolds’ workplace with gentle coming by the blinds and being sick in her rest room.
Higgins returned to the Federal Courtroom witness field on Wednesday as Community Ten and Lisa Wilkinson defend a defamation swimsuit introduced in opposition to them by Lehrmann over an interview with Higgins in February 2021 that he alleges urged he raped Higgins on March 23, 2019. He denies the allegation and maintains that they had no sexual contact.
Earlier on Wednesday, Higgins alleged Lehrmann tried to kiss her days earlier than she alleges he raped her in Parliament Home and took her cellphone “in jest” after they first met to cease her leaving a Canberra pub.
‘Not right here to destroy your life’
Higgins was taken by Ten’s barrister, Dr Matt Collins, KC, to an electronic mail she despatched Lehrmann on Monday, March 26, 2019, asking him for assist with a piece job and writing that she was “phoning a buddy”.
“I didn’t contemplate him a buddy,” Higgins stated. She stated she was trying to “soften the state of affairs” and present she was “not a risk” and “not right here to destroy your life” as a result of they nonetheless needed to work collectively and he was extra senior within the workplace.
‘Graphic and distressing’
Collins foreshadowed on Tuesday that Higgins would give “graphic and distressing proof” alleging Lehrmann raped her on March 23, 2019, and that she was “extra drunk than she had ever been in her life” after consuming no less than 12 vodka or spirit-based drinks.
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Lehrmann has denied throughout cross-examination that he inspired Higgins to get drunk within the hours earlier than the alleged assault.
Requested by Collins about her top and weight on the time she alleges she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann, Higgins advised the court docket on Tuesday she was about five-foot-seven (170 centimetres) and weighed within the “early 60 kilos”.
Collins foreshadowed {that a} toxicology knowledgeable engaged by Ten had opined in a report that “a lady of Ms Higgins’ age and weight who had drunk 13 vodka-based drinks between 7.25pm and 1.30am, had drunk no non-alcoholic drinks in that point, and had eaten throughout that point solely a slice of pizza and some sizzling chips, probably had a blood alcohol focus at 2.15am of about 0.23 per cent”. He stated that was “about 5 instances, a bit below 5 instances, the authorized restrict” for driving.
Drinks at The Dock
Higgins gave proof on Wednesday that from her statement of CCTV footage from The Dock lodge in Canberra on March 22, 2019, which captured her ingesting with Lehrmann and different staffers hours earlier than the alleged rape, she had 11 vodka-based drinks at that venue. Higgins stated this was an “abnormality” and an “extreme” quantity.
“I knew I used to be getting drunker,” Higgins stated, and advised the court docket she had “drunk known as” a former boyfriend at 11pm. “I used to be very drunk.”
Requested why she stored ingesting, Higgins stated: “I feel it was on the insistence of others, however I’m not 100 per cent positive.”
She stated Lehrmann was “the nicest he’d ever been to me” and “I felt like … an equal. I appreciated that. It felt like we had been friends virtually.”
A second bar
She stated she had some recollection that she went to a second bar in Canberra, 88mph, with Lehrmann and two different staffers, and that she was very inebriated by this stage. She recalled “the boys”, Lehrmann and one other staffer, introduced her and one other girl photographs.
“I do keep in mind taking a type of shot,” she stated. She stated she was “publicly dancing” at one stage and felt unwell at one other level.
She remembered Lehrmann having his arm round her and touching her legs and thigh space, she advised the court docket, and recalled a “thought strategy of discomfort”.
“I felt him being handsy with me. I used to be within the discipline of tolerance. I didn’t push him away. I didn’t snap at him. I used to be coping with him touching me. I didn’t need it however I used to be tolerating it.”
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Lehrmann has denied touching Higgins or placing his arm round her. Requested if he did anything, Higgins stated: “Not that I recall.”
First assembly
Higgins stated she first met Lehrmann with two different staffers on the Kingston Resort on March 2, 2019, earlier than she began work in then-defence business minister Linda Reynolds’ workplace with Lehrmann and others later that month.
Higgins stated she stayed on the venue “longer than I meant” and she or he was working late to fulfill one other buddy. Lehrmann advised her to remain for an additional drink, she advised the court docket, and she or he didn’t recall the opposite staffers “being as vocal or pushy about it”.
At one level Lehrmann took her cellphone “in jest in order that I couldn’t depart for some time” as a result of she would want her cellphone to guide an Uber, she stated. Lehrmann has denied taking Higgins’ cellphone.
“I assumed it was a joke,” she stated. “He simply took it for a time frame so I might keep longer.”
Alleged kiss
Higgins stated that Lehrmann “tried to kiss me on the lips” after a workers dinner on the Kingston Resort on March 15, 2019, days earlier than the alleged rape.
“I apologised, I used to be shocked, I stated no, and he appeared embarrassed,” Higgins stated. “I simply naturally thought possibly I’d carried out one thing to provide him that impression.”
Higgins stated Lehrmann’s taxi or Uber pulled up “so he just about instantly left” and she or he didn’t elevate the alleged incident once more as a result of “I felt like we’d each been embarrassed sufficient”.
Lisa Wilkinson exterior the Federal Courtroom in Sydney on Wednesday.Credit score: Louise Kennerley
“I didn’t need to draw consideration to it once more,” she stated. Lehrmann has denied the alleged incident and stated he couldn’t recall a workers dinner at the moment. He denied throughout his proof that he made “any advance to Ms Higgins ever”.
Higgins, who was known as as a witness by Ten, began giving proof in Sydney within the high-stakes defamation swimsuit late on Tuesday and is anticipated to stay within the witness field for days.
Ten stands behind report
On Tuesday, Ten’s barrister, Dr Matt Collins, KC, opened the broadcaster’s defence in Lehrmann’s lawsuit in opposition to Ten and its high-profile journalist Wilkinson over an interview with Higgins on The Undertaking, aired on February 15, 2021.
The previous Liberal staffer alleges the interview, which didn’t identify him, defames him by alleging he sexually assaulted Higgins in Reynolds’ workplace within the early hours of Saturday March 23, 2019. Collins stated Ten’s interview was an “vital train in public curiosity journalism” and it “stands behind its report”.
Lawsuit ‘certain to fail’
If the court docket finds Lehrmann was not directly recognized by the published, which didn’t identify him, Ten and Wilkinson admit the interview conveyed the central declare of rape and are searching for to rely partially on a reality defence.
Throughout his opening tackle, Collins stated Lehrmann’s case was “misconceived” and “certain to fail for quite a few causes”.
Lehrmann’s ACT legal trial for sexual assault was aborted in October final yr resulting from juror misconduct and the cost was later dropped altogether amid issues about Higgins’ psychological well being.