Former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins secretly recorded a conversation with then-cabinet minister Michaelia Cash about her alleged rape, and then sent the recording to a friend, a court has been told.
Bruce Lehrmann is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court for allegedly raping Ms Higgins, his then-colleague, in Parliament House after a drunken night out in March 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty and will argue he never had sex with Ms Higgins.
Under cross-examination on the third day of the trial, Ms Higgins told the court she spoke to Senator Cash, her then-boss, about the alleged assault almost two years afterwards, in January 2021.
In response to questioning, she said she covertly recorded the phone discussion to protect herself, and recorded another conversation with Senator Cash's chief of staff, Daniel Try.
She then sent the recording of Mr Try to News Corp journalist Samantha Maiden.
"I didn't think anyone would believe it, so I needed to have someone say it — it was for my legal protection," Ms Higgins said.
She told the court she found the conversation with Senator Cash odd.
"It was so strange because the entire call she was pretending, like, she didn't know and she thought a security guard assaulted me," Ms Higgins said.
"Like, it was ridiculous. It was the weirdest phone call I've ever had in my life."
She told the court she sent the recording of Senator Cash to a friend who is now a public relations consultant within minutes of the conversation ending.
Ms Higgins said she was trying to send the recording to friends because she was paranoid about losing it.
"It's my word against a cabinet minister's … so I was trying to give it to as many friends."
Mr Lehrmann's barrister, Steven Whybrow, asked Ms Higgins if she wanted the media to report her story before she made an official complaint to police.
Ms Higgins responded: "It wasn't really the intention."
'I made a mistake … I was wrong'
Earlier, Mr Lehrmann's lawyers pointed out inconsistencies in Ms Higgins's evidence in court.
Ms Higgins conceded she had "made a mistake" in her testimony when discussing the white dress she wore on the night of her alleged rape.
Under questioning, Ms Higgins initially said she put the dress in a plastic bag and kept it under her bed for six months, before washing it and wearing it one last time.
"Untouched, uncleaned," she told the court.
"I just had it there and I wasn't sure, because of all the party political stuff, how I could proceed or if I could proceed without losing my job. So I kept it there.
"It was like this weird anchor for me. Once it was very clear that I couldn't proceed without losing my job … I very symbolically washed it and then I wore it once more."
But later, under cross-examination, Ms Higgins said the final occasion she wore the dress was to a Liberal function in May in Perth.
When Mr Whybrow asked if she had lied about keeping it under her bed for six months, Ms Higgins said she made an error.
"I made a mistake … I was just wrong," she said.
Ms Higgins said she went to Perth to join the election campaign in early April, taking the dress with her. The alleged assault took place in the early hours of March 23.
She told the court she wore the dress to the campaign event to take control of what she said had happened to her.
"Honestly, I think I was reclaiming my agency … It may sound ridiculous to you, but it was kind of an empowerment thing," she said.
Mr Whybrow noted other inconsistencies in Ms Higgins's evidence.
In 2019, Ms Higgins told her then-chief of staff, Fiona Brown, that she was having a panic attack in a bathroom, when she was in fact at a lunch function.
Ms Higgins had also said her father came to Canberra to see her, specifically because of the alleged assault, but later acknowledged that he had already planned his trip.
'I don't remember any of this'
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Higgins was brought to tears in the witness box as she viewed CCTV footage of her entering Parliament House on the night she was allegedly raped.
The court was first played audio of Mr Lehrmann requesting entry to the building via an intercom, and saying: "We've been requested to pick up some documents. I've forgotten my pass."
Then footage of Ms Higgins was played entering with Mr Lehrmann, and going through the security check.
The video shows Ms Higgins having to walk through the scanner twice and struggling to put her shoes on, before she eventually gives up and enters Parliament barefoot.
She said she did not remember passing the security check twice when asked in court.
"I don't remember any of this," she told the court.
The court heard previously that Ms Higgins had been drunker than she had ever been on that night, and Mr Lehrmann had signed Parliament's security register for both himself and Ms Higgins, because she was too drunk to write.
Ms Higgins was also shown photos of the couch where the alleged assault happened, inside the office of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, and was asked to tell court her version of events.
She explained where she had been lying on the couch before she was allegedly awoken by Mr Lehrmann on top of her.
"I was like a prop, pinned into that corner, and my leg … one was flattened on that side and the other one was pinned up on the couch on that side," she said.
Brittany Higgins told ex about alleged assault
While on the stand, Ms Higgins was also asked about text messages she sent to a former partner in the days after the alleged assault.
She said that was one of the first times she disclosed to another person what had allegedly happened inside Parliament that night.
"I hadn't told anyone about the assault, so I was slowly trying to wade my way into this conversation … I didn’t want to rip off the bandaid and be, like: 'I was raped'," she said.
"I wanted to start the conversation."
Ms Higgins also told the court she felt subjected to "an intimidation tactic" when her then-boss, Ms Brown, summoned her to a meeting about the alleged assault in the office where it had allegedly occurred.
"My interpretation of that [meeting] was, if I raised it with police, there were going to be problems, and they wanted to be involved," she said.
"But, just by having the meeting in the room, it all seemed really off.
"My interpretation of that was a bit of a scare tactic or an intimidation tactic."
Ms Higgins said she felt initially supported by Ms Brown after telling her about that night.
"It was the first time I identified it as a sexual assault. I already knew it, in and of myself, but I hadn't vocalised it yet," she told the court.
However, she said, in the days after making that disclosure, she felt a shift in Ms Brown's response and felt she needed to choose between complaining formally to police or keeping her job.
She told the court that Senator Reynolds apologised for what happened when they discussed the alleged assault.
"There was a general level of empathy," Ms Higgins said.
"She said something to the effect of: 'I didn't think he was capable of that.'
"She apologised. Minister Reynolds apologised.
"At that point, it then became a conversation about the election, about what I was going to do and, if I did something, that I needed to let the office know."
Third day of weeks-long rape trial
Mr Lehrmann's trial is expected to run for at least four weeks.
On Wednesday, the court was told Ms Higgins did not seek medical treatment after the alleged rape, but took a pregnancy test weeks later while working on the federal election campaign in Perth.
The court was played recordings of Ms Higgins's police interviews from last year, and was also shown CCTV footage from a bar she had been in on the night of the alleged crime.
That footage showed her consuming multiple drinks throughout the evening, before and after Mr Lehrmann arrived.
The defence will put its case to the jury in coming days.
On Tuesday, the court heard briefly from Mr Lehrmann's legal team as they said their client had already faced a "trial by media" since Ms Higgins's allegations were made public last year.
In laying out the defence case, Mr Whybrow said he would discuss "holes" in the case against Mr Lehrmann, and question what prompted Ms Higgins to eventually air her allegations.
The case continues.
