Lehrmann has instructed the court docket the alleged assault “didn’t occur” and there was no sexual contact between the pair in any respect. His position was not terminated on account of the sexual assault allegation.
The court docket heard on Monday that Higgins’ dad and mom, Matthew and Kelly, and her father’s associate Kellie Jago would give proof after two Australian Federal Police brokers and a public servant.
CCTV footage
Cleaves, who was based mostly in Parliament Home in 2019, spoke to Higgins on April 1 concerning the alleged assault. She gave proof that Higgins instructed her and a second AFP agent that she didn’t wish to proceed with a proper grievance.
The court docket heard Cleaves made a request on April 3 to the Division of Parliamentary Providers to “quarantine” CCTV footage from March 22 and 23.
“We do know with loads of CCTV it may be overwritten,” Cleaves mentioned. “We at all times err on the aspect of warning and do one thing pretty rapidly to make sure that it wasn’t misplaced.”
Cleaves recorded in her notes that Higgins didn’t need “that to be the narrative that outlined her fame” in Parliament Home.
She instructed the court docket she considered CCTV footage of the evening in query on April 16, 2019, however was not allowed to have a replica of it, though “we wished a replica”. Cleaves mentioned there was a reluctance for a replica of the footage to be supplied with out an energetic investigation.
“It’s totally different with totally different departments and totally different areas,” Cleaves mentioned. “Typically talking, we will get CCTV footage in a short time. This one appeared to take slightly bit longer and I used to be involved concerning the time it was taking, contemplating the character of the allegation.
“There was positively fairly a couple of telephone calls made at a better degree to make sure that that CCTV footage was allowed to be considered by us.”
Justice Michael Lee requested if Cleaves meant totally different departments of the manager authorities, and Cleaves agreed.
AFP agent Katie Thelning, who was additionally current with Cleaves on the assembly with Higgins, gave proof referring to her personal notes of the dialog. Higgins instructed them she had “cordial dealings” with Lehrmann on the Monday and Tuesday after the alleged assault, Thelning mentioned.
She mentioned Higgins instructed them that she didn’t wish to make a proper grievance however was talking off the report.
‘Prime secret’ doc on desk
In a while Monday, a former departmental liaison officer in Reynolds’ workplace, Chris Payne, mentioned he was knowledgeable by one other staffer in March 2019 that Lehrmann had left a doc with a high secret safety classification on his desk.
Payne mentioned he regarded this as “fairly vital” and positioned the doc in a secure.
He mentioned that Lehrmann later instructed him that “it wasn’t my concern” and “he would really like me to return it to him”.
‘You’re by no means going to imagine this’
Payne additionally instructed the court docket that Brown had come to see him in his workplace shortly after March 23 and mentioned that “you’re by no means going to imagine this”, earlier than telling him Higgins had been discovered “in a state of undress” on the sofa within the minister’s workplace.
Brown instructed him in that dialog that she would attempt to get entry to CCTV footage to “resolve” what had occurred, Payne mentioned.
He mentioned Brown was “annoyed” as a result of this was “yet one more factor to take care of within the workplace”.
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Payne mentioned he spoke to Higgins “later that very same day”.
“I requested her phrases to the impact ‘what’s flawed?,’” he mentioned. “She mentioned that she and Bruce had arrived in an Uber at Parliament Home … [and] come again to the minister’s suite.”
He mentioned Higgins instructed him she awakened on the minister’s sofa and that “Mr Lehrmann was having intercourse together with her on the sofa”.
“She was very upset at that time,” he mentioned.
He mentioned he requested Higgins if Lehrmann raped her and she or he replied: “I couldn’t have consented. It might have been like f—ing a log.” Payne instructed the court docket that “they had been fairly confronting phrases” and “they caught with me”.
Payne mentioned he instructed Higgins that she had been found bare in Reynolds’ workplace, and he believed he mentioned it was the AFP who discovered her. He mentioned she “expressed shock”.
Safety guard’s pocket book
Former Parliament Home safety guard Nikola Anderson gave proof on Thursday that she was on responsibility on the evening Higgins alleges Lehrmann raped her within the workplace of their boss.
Extracts of Anderson’s 2019 pocket book had been tendered in proof in court docket and launched publicly on Friday. In an entry on March 22 and 23, 2019, Anderson wrote: “Incident occurred. Bare in Reynolds workplace. Welfare examine approx 4.20.”
A diary entry from a safety guard submitted into proof a part of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.
Anderson let Lehrmann and Higgins into Reynolds’ ministerial suite in Parliament Home at roughly 1.50am on March 23, she wrote in an incident report tendered in proof in court docket.
Safety guard Nikola Anderson was on responsibility the evening Brittany Higgins claims she was raped by Bruce Lehrmann.Credit score: Kate Geraghty
She mentioned that she carried out a welfare examine about 4.15am and located the “feminine go holder” she had let into the suite bare on Reynolds’ sofa.
The defamation go well with
Lehrmann is suing Ten and its journalist Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with Higgins, aired on The Mission on February 15, 2021, that he alleges defames him by suggesting he’s responsible of raping Higgins in Parliament Home in 2019.
He was not named in Ten’s broadcast and a preliminary problem within the case is whether or not he was recognized by way of different means.
Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, outdoors the Federal Court docket in Sydney on Monday.Credit score: Nick Moir
If the court docket finds he was recognized, Ten and Wilkinson are looking for to depend on a spread of defences together with fact, which might require the court docket to be glad to the civil customary – on the stability of possibilities – that he raped Higgins. In a felony trial, a prosecutor should show an accused’s guilt past affordable doubt.
Ten and Wilkinson referred to as Higgins to offer proof as a part of their fact defence.
Lip-reader’s report
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Ten is anticipated to name additional witnesses on Monday as a part of its defence. On Friday, Justice Michael Lee dominated that it may tender an knowledgeable lip-reader’s report expressing an opinion on phrases spoken by Higgins and Lehrmann at The Dock resort in Canberra within the hours earlier than the alleged assault, based mostly on an evaluation of CCTV footage.
Lehrmann’s authorized staff unsuccessfully argued that the report shouldn’t be admitted in proof and so they have but to cross-examine the knowledgeable.
Lee made clear that his ruling permitting the report back to be admitted in proof was not a sign of the load he would finally place on the opinions expressed in it.
Sexual assault cost dropped
Lehrmann’s ACT Supreme Court docket trial for sexual assault was aborted final 12 months as a result of juror misconduct. The cost towards Lehrmann was later dropped altogether owing to considerations about Higgins’ psychological well being.
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