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Brittany Higgins returns to ACT Supreme Court to resume giving evidence as Bruce Lehrmann trial continues

A former Liberal Party staffer has directly addressed the man accused of raping her inside Parliament House after returning to the ACT Supreme Court on Friday.

Brittany Higgins resumed giving evidence in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann, after she was unavailable for most of the week.

Mr Lehrmann is charged with raping Ms Higgins in a ministerial office in 2019.

He has pleaded not guilty and says no sexual activity took place.

On Friday morning, Ms Higgins spoke to Mr Lehrmann directly from the witness stand.

"Nothing was fine after what you did to me, nothing," she said.

Earlier on Friday morning, Mr Lehrmann's lawyer, Steven Whybrow, suggested to Ms Higgins that the alleged assault had never occurred.

"I don't accept it at all," she responded.

Mr Whybrow also asked Ms Higgins if she fabricated the allegations to save her job.

"I'm not a monster — I would never do anything like that," she said.

"You're asserting to me that I fabricated this just to keep my job and I care about my job, but I would never do that." 

Later, Mr Whybrow once again suggested that Mr Lehrmann had never assaulted her.

She again rejected the assertion.

"He was in there, he was physically violating me. He was in my body. I know"

'I couldn't get out of bed'

Mr Whybrow quizzed her about her earlier evidence, when she had been asked if she had visited a doctor after the alleged assault.

On Friday, Ms Higgins conceded that, while she told officers in 2019 she had gone to a doctor and was awaiting test results, she never attended a medical appointment.

"I continued to make appointments. I had [the] intention of going but I was so depressed, I couldn't get out of bed," she said.

"Going and confronting it with a health professional was a really big f***ing deal for me."

"I agree, I agree. I wasn't perfect."

Suppression order lifted on week's evidence

The court had suppressed public reporting of most of this week's hearings to prevent it from influencing Ms Higgins's evidence.

That suppression order has now been removed.

Earlier this week, the jury was shown video of Mr Lehrmann's interview with police, recorded two years after the alleged assault.

In the interview, Mr Lehrmann told officers he first learned he was accused of rape from a journalist.

He said the allegation had made him want to die, and he began to prepare for his mother to be his beneficiary after his death.

Mr Lehrmann also described his night out with Ms Higgins and other colleagues as "innocuous" and said that, after arriving at Parliament, he did not interact with Ms Higgins.

The security guard who allowed the pair to enter their boss's parliamentary office, Nikola Anderson, also testified this week.

Ms Anderson described checking on Ms Higgins's welfare later in the night and finding her "completely naked" and in a foetal position in the office.

The pair's chief of staff at the time, Fiona Brown, also gave evidence before court.

She said Ms Higgins told her of the rape allegation within a week of the alleged incident.

Ms Brown also said Mr Lehrmann lost his job because he had twice breached security policies, including by arriving at Parliament House with Ms Higgins late that night.

The court has been told the case is set to finish by the end of next week.

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