A former Australian government worker who has accused a colleague of raping her says that she felt “trapped” during the sexual assault in Parliament House.
Brittany Higgins was the first witness to testify in the trial in Canberra, telling the court on Wednesday that she felt “trapped, not human” as colleague Bruce Lehrmann hovered over her, grunting and making other noises.
Ms Higgins said she asked the 27-year-old to stop but he continued, even as she started crying.
Mr Lehrmann, a senior ministerial adviser, has pleaded not guilty in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court case relating to the alleged assault of March 2019. The trial began is being overseen by the capital territory’s chief justice Lucy McCallum.
Mr Lehrmann, who faces a potential 12-year prison sentence if convicted, has been accused of abusing Ms Higgins, who says she passed out in an inebriated condition and woke up to the man sexually assaulting her.
According to prosecutors, the two had been out drinking with their co-workers at a bar in Canberra on 22 March 2019, after which they went to a nightclub and then left in a taxi together in the early hours.
Ms Higgins said she thought she was on her way home, but her colleague said he needed to stop at the parliament building to collect work, the prosecutor told the court.
The guards who saw the pair entering the building said the two were observed to be affected by alcohol.
Ms Higgins has alleged she fell asleep on a couch after the two entered defence industry minister Linda Reynolds’s office and woke up to the accused sexually assaulting her.
The former Liberal staffer said she returned to work the following Monday, two days after the alleged rape, fearing that she would be fired because her and Mr Lehrmann’s entry into the minister’s office was flagged as a security breach.
“I knew what had happened to me was wrong, I knew I hadn’t consented,” Ms Higgins said.
She also told the police that she didn’t think anyone would believe what happened to her and that the accused man’s words carried more weight than hers because of his more senior role.
“He was in the office on Monday. … He didn’t seem ashamed (or) upset,” Ms Higgins said. “It just didn’t feel like something he wanted to address.”
Ms Higgins was questioned by one of her supervisors about the late night weekend visit to the office on the following Tuesday.
When she identified the incident as a sexual assault to her former chief of staff, Ms Higgins told the police that “the gears shifted”.
“It became less about me and more political, in a sense,” she said.
According to the defence lawyer, Ms Higgins’s allegations had not been tested or proven.
Mr Lehrmann has also denied having sex with her, defence lawyer Steven Whybrow told the jury.
The government worker said that this was not the first attempt where the accused tried to make a pass on her. Mr Lehrmann had tried to kiss her after a staff dinner weeks before the alleged rape which she said she had “politely rebuffed”.
The two never spoke about the incident again, she said.
“I rebuffed the kiss mostly out of shock because I wasn’t anticipating it,” Ms Higgins told the court, adding that during her career in parliament other men had made similar passes at her.
The case sparked outrage in the country with Ms Higgins calling out former prime minister Scott Morrison for “victim blaming” and alleging Mr Morrison’s government had carried out unofficial briefings against her and her loved ones.
The former prime minister had also apologised and said the incident “should not have happened”.
