What we heard today
Brittany Higgins returned to the witness box for a second day of cross-examination on Friday afternoon in the defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. You can find the more in-depth wrap on today’s events here.
Just a reminder: The case concerns an interview aired on Ten’s The Project, in which Higgins alleged she was raped by a Liberal staffer in Parliament House. Network Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case.
Bruce Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the second trial did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.
Here’s what we heard on Friday afternoon at the defamation case:
Higgins was cross-examined over a white pencil dress she wore on the night of the alleged rape. She told Lehrmann’s barrister Steve Whybrow SC that she wore it at a later Liberal party event in Perth because she was “trying to reclaim it”, but she couldn’t and never wore it again.
The court heard Higgins had secretly recorded a conversation with Liberal senator Michaelia Cash. Higgins told the court she had recorded the conversation for her own “legal protection”. Whybrow told the court Cash was now aware of the recording and had given permission for it to be played. However, a decision on whether it can be aired in open court was delayed until next Tuesday.
Higgins conceded that a timeline of events that she prepared, which she said she wrote for herself, the police and Ten’s The Project, contained facts that were incorrect.
The court heard a recording of a long pre-interview that Wilkinson and her producer Angus Llewellyn conducted with Higgins and her partner David Sharaz. The recording included discussion about whether then opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, could be helpful in pushing the story ahead. Wilkinson is heard in the recording saying Albanese is “a bit of a dead duck at the moment”.
Higgins told the court Linda Reynolds “did not meet her duty of care” towards her and she felt “unsupported” by Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown – but she did not count them as “villains” and was “still a Liberal” at the time she went public, though she no longer is.
At the beginning of the day, Justice Michael Lee foreshadowed that the trial may be extended past its original 14 December end date, possibly up to 18 December
We’ll be back on Tuesday when Higgins’ cross-examination will continue.
Updated
Brittany Higgins has been excused for the day because the court is dealing with the tabling of exhibits.
She will continue her cross-examination on Tuesday because the court is not sitting on Monday.
Updated
