Brittany Higgins told police that she recalled feeling “disproportionately” drunk given the amount of alcohol she had drunk on the night she alleged she was raped.
The defamation trial is continuing today with the federal agent Rebecca Cleaves giving evidence on her meeting with Ms Higgins about a week after the alleged rape on April 1, 2019.
Ms Cleaves said that her notes recording Ms Higgins expressed concern about how intoxicated she was and how much she had drunk.
“She remembers feeling disproportionately intoxicated, in comparison to the amount of alcohol she thought she’d had,” Ms Cleaves said.
Ms Higgins had fallen over twice, so she decided it was time to go home.
“At which time she remembers being escorted to the rear of an Uber with her colleague Bruce,” Ms Cleaves said.
“And the next thing she remembers was being dropped off at Parliament House.
“And she remembered that Mr Lehrmann said her words to the effect of ‘just play along’.
“From there, she remembers waking up on the ministerial suite couch and Bruce Lehrmann was on top of her participating in non-consensual sex.”
Ms Cleaves said Ms Higgins remembered saying “No, or don’t”, and the next thing she remembered after that was waking up in the morning, alone.
In evidence in the Federal Court, Ms Cleaves said that Ms Higgins told her she woke up and could “smell sex”.
She did not want to make a formal complaint and did not want the evening to become the “narrative” of her employment at Parliament House.
On April 3, the AFP made a request for the CCTV footage but ran into problems.
“We made a formal request to the Department of Parliamentary Services for access to the CCTV footage,” Ms Cleaves said.
“When you fill it out, it’s to quarantine the footage, so it’s preserved.”
Where’s David Sharaz?
Justice Michael Lee again asked if Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz was being called as a witness in the defamation trial. The court was told Mr Sharaz would not be giving evidence.
Ms Higgins’ mother, father and her father’s partner will also be called to give evidence.
The defamation trial will hear from two of the original AFP police officers stationed at Parliament House who spoke to Ms Higgins in the week after the alleged rape — Rebecca Cleaves and Kate Thelnig — as it continues today.
The Federal Court will also hear from a former departmental liaison officer Chris Payne, who asked Ms Higgins in 2019 “were you raped?” and Ms Higgins disclosed that what she alleged had occurred, in her view, could not have been consensual.
It’s the second time Justice Lee has asked Channel 10’s barrister Matt Collins KC if Mr Sharaz was to be called as a witness.
“No one’s calling Mr Sharaz? That remains a position?” Mr Collins said on Monday.
The Federal Court has heard evidence about his involvement in setting up the interview with Ten and his appearance on the audio of a five-hour pre-interview tape recorded by 10 producer Angus Llewellyn.
‘Irregular’ request from the Department of Finance
The Federal Court has also criticised the Commonwealth as “irregular” for suggesting that it should be consulted over the affidavit of Ms Higgins’ former chief of staff Fiona Brown as a “condition” of providing taxpayer-funded legal advice.
Justice Lee criticised the correspondence on Monday suggesting that if the Department wanted to make any submissions on the disclosure of any documents or information there were processes for doing that.
“I’m sure it’s all quite anodyne but it’s a fairly unorthodox way of proceeding,” Justice Lee said.
“I made it clear that obviously there could be consultation about the provision of documents, but to the extent that it involves some further consultation, the preparation of evidence, it does seem to me to be slightly irregular.”