Brittany Higgins: Michaelia Cash says she was ’embarrassed’ a Parliament story could go public

Brittany Higgins blocked her accused rapist on social media in the wake of the alleged incident, a court has heard.

Meanwhile, her ex-boss Michaelia Cash said Ms Higgins was ’embarrassed’ that a story could come out that she entered Parliament late at night with Bruce Lehrmann.

Lehrmann is standing trial in the ACT Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting Ms Higgins one evening in March 2019. 

Ms Higgins did not appear at court on Monday morning as the trial heard evidence from a detective investigating Ms Higgins’ rape, a digital forensic investigator and Senator Cash, the former attorney-general. 

Brittany Higgins blocked Bruce Lehrmann on social media in the wake of the incident, the ACT Supreme Court has heard

Former attorney-general Michaelia Cash was one of the first witnesses at court on Monday 

Speaking via audio-visual link, Cash told the court Ms Higgins flagged an issue with an enquiry by the Canberra Times in October 2019. 

According to Ms Cash, Ms Higgins was concerned the issue of her security breach would be made public.

‘She was embarrassed because it was in relation to herself and a security issue. 

‘She and another staff member returned to the office after drinking … They were potentially intoxicated. 

‘Ms Higgins fell asleep on the couch and I believe security found her the next day.’

Ms Cash denied knowing about any sexual assault allegations prior to February 5, 2021.

Prosecutor Shane Drumgold grilled Senator Cash about whether she knew or not, and put to her that she was denying any knowledge ‘because it would politically embarrassing’.

Senator Cash replied: ‘Absolutely not … I don’t understand the political connection to this.’

Bruce Lehrmann arrives at the ACT Supreme Court on Monday, where he is standing trial accused of allegedly raping Ms Higgins in March 2019 

Mr Drumgold continued: ‘I’m suggesting, as early as October 2019, that Ms Higgins had a conversations about the sexual element of what she said happened to her in Senator Reynolds’ office.’

Ms Cash replied: ‘Not a sexual element. The first time she mentioned that was in a conversation on February 5, 2021.’

The senator told the court she only spoke with Ms Higgins about the the evening of March 22, 2019, was in October 2019 – explaining that the conversation was only about the security breach.

Ms Cash said the only other time they spoke about the alleged assault was on February 5, 2021 – after Ms Higgins tendered her resignation.

Mr Drumgold then asked whether Ms Cash was prepared to keep Ms Higgins employment, even after she heard about the allegations.

Ms Cash responded: ‘Absolutely. Absolutely. She was a very good employee.’

Defence lawyer Steven Whybrow then asked Senator Cash whether it would be ‘political suicide’ to cover up an alleged assault, to which she replied: ‘Correct … Exactly.’

Earlier, the court heard details of the police investigation into a picture of a bruise that was allegedly on Ms Higgins’ leg. 

Digital forensic examiner Peter Reid was only able to find a photo of a large bruise on her thigh on a Google Drive account.

Mr Reid told the court the image had no metadata, location or time, because it had was not one of the 8000 photos stored on her phone.  

Mr Reid was provided with two additional phones on July 22, 2021, but the ‘pin numbers provided were unsuccessful’.

‘I wasn’t able to extract any data from those phones,’ he told the court.

The court is later expected to hear evidence from Linda Reynolds – the defence minister, who was later her boss – on Tuesday.

The trial continues. 

Read the grovelling apology email the political staffer accused of raping Brittany Higgins sent to his minister boss after she threatened to sack him: ‘I do feel I have failed… You have been the best’ 

The man accused of raping Brittany Higgins said he felt ’embarrassed, ashamed and deeply remorseful’ in an apology letter to a federal minister who wanted to sack him for code of conduct breaches, a court has heard.

Bruce Lehrmann, 26, is accused of sexually assaulting the former Liberal staffer in the parliamentary office of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in the early hours of March 23, 2019.

Lehrmann, who worked with Ms Higgins at the time, has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent in the ACT Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, Ms Reynolds’ former acting chief-of-staff Fiona Brown gave evidence, telling the court that Lehrmann was sacked – less than two weeks after the alleged rape – over three conduct breaches.

Two of the breaches involved entering Parliament House while inebriated about 1.45am on March 23, 2019 – he was with Ms Higgins at the time – and for falsely telling security they were there for ‘urgent work purposes’.

The third breach was a prior incident relating to the ‘mishandling’ of a ‘protected code-worded document’.

Ms Brown’s evidence and Lehrmann’s letter of apology can only now be revealed due to a court order banning publication until Ms Higgins had finished giving evidence. 

Letters and emails tendered to the court this week showed an exchange between Lehrmann, Ms Brown and Ms Reynolds in April 2019.

The first was a letter from Ms Reynolds on April 4 stated her intention to terminate Lehrmann’s job unless he could convince her he should not be sacked.

The second was Lehrmann’s lengthy email response the following day, spanning almost two A4 pages.

Scroll down to read the email Lehrmann sent Linda Reynolds and chief of staff Fiona Brown

In the letter, Lehrmann apologised profusely for ‘entering the office’ at Parliament House after hours, the night he is accused of raping Brittany Higgins. Ms Higgins is seen above on Friday 

In his response Lehrmann apologised profusely for ‘entering the office after hours’ and told the minister she was ‘the best’ boss he’d ever had.

He then detailed how he grew up on welfare with a single mother because his father had died when he was two.

‘I respond feeling embarrassed, ashamed and deeply remorseful,’ he wrote. 

‘I offer no excuses and accept that entering the office after hours is a breach no matter what the reason.

‘I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to you and Fiona [Brown] directly for the position I have put you both in because of it… Minister, at no time was I acting with malice, ill-will or intent to cause indirect or direct damage to you, your office or your staff.’

During her evidence, Ms Brown told the court she had a meeting with Lehrmann on March 26 – three days after the alleged rape – to address the mishandling of the sensitive document.

She told the court it was a ‘sackable offence’ in itself, however, she noted his intention, prior to the breaches, had been to leave parliament and seek employment elsewhere. His last day would have been that coming Friday, March 29.

For that reason, Ms Brown told the court there was no disciplinary action taken against Lehrmann. 

She simply asked him to go home that evening to look around his office and return any other documents.

Later that morning, she was informed about the security breach when Lehrmann and Ms Higgins entered Parliament House while intoxicated, claiming they had ‘urgent’ work to attend to.

Ms Brown called another meeting with Lehrmann and asked what he had been doing at work so early in the morning.

‘[Lehrmann] didn’t agree that he was inebriated,’ she told the court. 

‘He said he came back to the office to drink some whiskey.’

Some of the highlights of Bruce Lehrmann’s apology message to Linda Reynolds and acting chief of staff Fiona Brown

When asked if she knew how much he drank at the office, Ms Brown told the court: ‘My recollection was that it was two glasses.’   

The court heard Ms Brown was particularly concerned because he was previously caught mishandling documents, and then arrived at parliament while inebriated claiming he had work to do.

She asked whether he had taken any documents from the building, and gave him 15 minutes to collect his belongings and leave the office immediately.

Ms Brown told the court she wanted to walk him out, mainly to observe that he wasn’t carrying any documents – however, when she went to check on him about five minutes later, he was gone. 

In his apology letter, sent more than a week later, Lehrmann did not directly address claims that he told Ms Brown he was in parliament to drink whiskey, he only refuted the claim that he told security he was at work for official purposes.

‘This insinuates that I was acting under the authority from [Ms Reynolds] and this was in no way the case and I certainly did not make that inference,’ he said.

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Lehrmann wrote the email to his boss, minister Linda Reynolds (above, in the Federal Senate) and acting chief-of-staff Fiona Brown. ‘Working for you has been a particular highlight of mine,’ he said

‘This action was the result of a serious lack of judgement on my part and I apologise and regret it happening.’

However, he did apologise to Ms Brown for leaving abruptly on his last day.

‘I do offer a further apology to Fiona for not returning on my final day,’ he wrote.

‘This was a particularly difficult day for me where I simply spiralled down a dark path and to see my some five years plus come to an end so quickly was very shocking for me.

‘This past week has been very difficult and I have not been in the right mind to even think about matters on Capital Hill. That is why I retreated to Queensland to see my mother who has been sick for a number of months now.’

Lehrmann went on to detail his childhood, growing up with a mother who relied on welfare and ‘gave up her dreams and aspirations to see her two children succeed’.

He added, ‘I do feel I have failed’, and said watching his mother’s illness had an impact on his decision-making skills.

The former political staffer then went on to praise Ms Reynolds for being ‘the best’ boss he had during his five years in parliament, during which time he worked under six ministers.

‘Not only are you the first minister I have worked for that actually takes a deep and abiding interest in the portfolios you hold but you genuinely care how you can make the nation a better place to live, and it’s not just words,’ he said.

‘It is nothing but an honour to work for any senator, MP or minister but working for you has been a particular highlight of mine.’

In the last two paragraphs of his letter, Lehrmann apologised again for his actions, re-stating that they were ‘completely out of character for me and the result of poor decision making’.

‘I am sorry to you and Fiona for the position I have forced you in to. I have let you down considerably and for that I feel terrible. I will accept the outcome of your considerations,’ he wrote.

The letters tendered to the court showed Lehrmann spoke with Ms Brown after sending his email response, however, he later received another letter from Ms Reynolds on April 5 notifying that his employment would be terminated.

‘I do remain of the view that your actions contributed to serious breaches of the Ministerial Statement of Standards which constitutes serious misconduct,’ Ms Reynolds wrote.

‘This letter is formal notification that your employment will be terminated effective today.’

Ms Brown told the court she did not have any further contact with Lehrmann after April 5.

The trial continues.