Brittany Higgins: court hears how a dream job turned into the nightmare of alleged rape

In her final memory before blacking out, Brittany Higgins paused for a moment of reflection, she told those closest to her.

Her mother, Kelly Higgins, told court this week that her daughter remembered being struck by two feelings: happiness and pride.

Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent.

Kelly Higgins said her daughter became unfamiliar to her.

Lehrmann, dressed in a navy suit and tan boots, has for the most part busied himself taking notes in a small black diary as his trial plays out.

He watched this week as multiple witnesses contradicted his evidence on the reason for going back to Parliament House in the early hours of the morning.

He told police he went back to the office to pick up his keys and do some work on question time briefs for the minister. Higgins, he said, had also needed to do some work, though he had no idea what.

Also in the meeting was another Coalition figure, Reg Chamberlain, chief of staff to then special minister of state, Alex Hawke.

The Department of Parliamentary Services report recorded that Lehrmann had told security he and Higgins were there for urgent work purposes.

Both Brown and Chamberlain recalled Lehrmann telling them he had come back to parliament to drink whisky.

Chamberlain told the court Lehrmann had never said he was there for work during the meeting with Brown.

Lehrmann and Higgins entered Parliament House about 1.45am. A parliamentary security guard, Mark Fairweather, told the court he remembered Lehrmann leaving by himself at 2.33am.

The court heard Lehrmann seemed to be in a hurry.

In the days that followed, Higgins told Dillaway that she had been assaulted, he told the court. He said he flew to Canberra to support her.

Higgins also told others, the court heard.

Higgins told colleagues she was worried about her job and, despite initially speaking to police, decided not to pursue a complaint in 2019.

That was disputed by Brown, her then chief of staff, who told the court she and Reynolds had offered Higgins their full support.

Higgins initially met two federal agents attached to Parliament House on 1 April 2019. The officers recalled that Higgins was rattled during the 30-minute interview.

They also recalled Higgins saying she had already been to a doctor in the south of Canberra and was awaiting results. She gave the officers a date and location for the doctor she had visited.

In her 2021 interview, conducted after she reinstated her complaint, police notes record her telling detectives she had been to a medical centre in Kingston, Canberra, two weeks after the alleged rape.

Higgins told the court that was wrong.

No record has been found of her visiting the doctor in the weeks after the alleged rape, the court has heard.

On Friday, for the first time during her evidence, Higgins spoke to her alleged rapist directly.

Whybrow repeatedly suggested to Higgins that she had made the complaint of rape only when she realised her dream job might be at risk due to the late-night visit to Parliament House.

Higgins said she had disclosed the alleged rape as soon as she had met Brown, her chief of staff, on the Tuesday, three days later.

Turning to Lehrmann, sitting on the opposite side of the courtroom, Higgins said:

The trial continues before the ACT supreme court justice, Lucy McCallum.