A former Liberal Party staffer did not seek medical treatment after she was allegedly raped in Canberra's Parliament House, but took a pregnancy test weeks later while working on the federal election campaign in Perth, a court has heard.
Brittany Higgins gave evidence in front of an ACT Supreme Court jury on the second day of the trial of her alleged rapist, Bruce Lehrmann.
Mr Lehrmann, also a former Liberal staffer, is accused of raping his then colleague Ms Higgins after the pair had been out drinking in March 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty and denies he had sex with Ms Higgins.
For most of the day's hearing, the court was played recordings of Ms Higgins's police interviews from last year.
In one of the interviews, she told officers she took a pregnancy test after the alleged assault but had not sought medical treatment.
When police asked her about a text she had sent to a former partner, telling him she had been to a GP, she explained the text was to placate him because he was worried about her and she had not visited a doctor.
However, she told officers she later visited a GP about her mental health problems related to the alleged assault.
When police asked her if she had taken the morning-after pill, Ms Higgins said she had not.
Late on Wednesday afternoon, when Ms Higgins took the stand, the court was shown CCTV footage from a bar Ms Higgins had been to on the night of the alleged crime.
The footage showed her consuming multiple drinks throughout the evening, before and after Mr Lehrmann arrived.
Ms Higgins left the court in tears after watching the footage.
She had earlier told police that, on that night, she had been more drunk than she had ever been.
The court heard that, when the pair later arrived at Parliament House, Mr Lehrmann had signed the security register for both himself and Ms Higgins, because she was too drunk to write.
'He did not seem ashamed or upset'
In the police interviews played to the court, Ms Higgins described the aftermath of the alleged rape, saying she was left feeling "trapped" and "not human".
She said that, after Mr Lehrmann allegedly finished sexually assaulting her, "he didn't say anything and he left the room".
"I do remember that he got up and he looked at me, and it was a strange moment of just … eye contact and, at that point, I didn't say anything to him anymore," she said.
Ms Higgins told police that, during the alleged incident, Mr Lehrmann "wasn't looking at me, he was looking over me".
She also said that when she became conscious, she thought Mr Lehrmann had already been penetrating her for some time.
"I was coming late to the party and it felt like me saying no … it was like this strange sort of afterthought," she said.
"He wasn't reactive to it. He was almost finishing so it wasn't acknowledged, he just kept going."
In the interviews, Ms Higgins said she cried during the alleged assault and told Mr Lehrmann "no".
The court heard that parliamentary security staff later woke her in the office of then Liberal minister Linda Reynolds, where she and Mr Lehrmann worked.
She said she ate a box of chocolates, vomited in the toilet in the minister's office and then left.
Ms Higgins said she next saw Mr Lehrmann a few days later at work.
She said they did not discuss the alleged incident and he "did not seem ashamed" or "upset".
"He didn't really approach me, which I remembered and … I didn't really try and actively approach him for any work-related stuff," she told police.
"It was kind of like this weird stand-off. It wasn't really, like, adversarial.
"I remember at one point he brought me a coffee, and I thanked him for it."
Ms Higgins told police it was not until the next day that she disclosed what had happened to a more senior staff member, who had been asking her why she entered Parliament House late at night.
"At the end of the meeting as soon as I identified it as a rape … I started to cry and that's sort of when the gears shifted," she said.
'The disparity between him and me was huge'
On Wednesday morning, the jury heard that Ms Higgins considered herself "disposable" at work and told police of the "huge" power imbalance between herself and Mr Lehrmann.
"The disparity between him and me was huge," she said.
"I was very disposable."
She described Mr Lehrmann to police as "the most senior adviser that [Senator Reynolds, the then defence industry minister] had".
"He was nice to me sometimes, he'd sometimes buy me coffee, but at the same time he'd sort of demand me to do all these things that were outside my job and I did them on the basis that … I don't know," Ms Higgins said in the interview.
"Sort of being a ministerial staffer, the roles are sort of blurred and you do what is asked of you.
"I did what was asked."
Ms Higgins also told police that Mr Lehrmann had tried to kiss her shortly after she began working in Senator Reynolds's office.
"In my first week and a bit [working in the office], Bruce made a pass at me and tried to kiss me at an event," she said.
She alleged that Mr Lehrmann had tried to kiss her when leaving a work event at the Kingston Hotel.
Ms Higgins told police she rejected him.
"I just ignored it and, you know, people try and take shots – whatever. But he tried, and I said no," she told police.
Second day largely about prosecution case
Much of Wednesday's hearing involved setting out the prosecution case and hearing from Ms Higgins.
The defence will put its case to the jury in coming days.
However, the court heard briefly from Mr Lehrmann's legal team on Tuesday, 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, his barrister Steve Whybrow said he would discuss "holes" in the case against Mr Lehrmann, and question what prompted Ms Higgins to eventually air her allegation.
He noted Ms Higgins had made a formal police complaint after speaking to the media.
"It was too good a story, and too good an opportunity to give up, by critically assessing her allegations or fact-checking them," Mr Whybrow said.
The trial continues.
