What we heard today
Today we heard from two Parliament House security guards, Linda Reynolds’s former aide-de-camp Nikita Irvine, and Higgins’s ex-partner Ben Dillaway.
Just a reminder: Bruce Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court over an interview with Higgins on Ten’s The Project in which she alleged she was raped by a Liberal staffer in Parliament House. Network Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case and Higgins is a witness for the defence.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred in the criminal trial which was aborted due to juror misconduct.
Here’s what we heard today in the defamation case:
Senator Linda Reynolds’s former chief of staff Fiona Brown has asked to be excused from giving evidence at the defamation trial due to her “vulnerable” mental health.
Nikola Anderson, a Parliament House security guard, gave evidence about what she saw when she was on duty at the house on 23 March 2019. She told the court she found Brittany Higgins “completely naked” in senator Linda Reynolds’s office when she did a welfare check after 4am.
A second security guard on duty that night, Mark Fairweather, told the court Higgins “did stumble a little bit” and was asked to take her shoes off to go through the metal detector on 23 March 2019.
Linda Reynolds’s former aide-de-camp Nikita Irvine told the court Lehrmann gave her “bad vibes’ based on “women’s intuition”. Irvine said Linda Reynolds told her she felt “very sick” about Higgins’ disclosure. Irvine also said she did not think the Reynolds staffers she spoke to tried to “cover up” the alleged ministerial office incident.
Higgins’s ex-partner Ben Dillaway also gave evidence that Higgins alleged to him that she had been sexually assaulted and when he met her for a drink in Canberra she broke down and cried. Dillaway said he tried to get some help for Higgins’s distress after the alleged rape.
The Walkley Foundation revoked the nomination given to Seven Spotlight’s Trial and Error story about Bruce Lehrmann after reviewing documents released by the federal court relating to the payment of Lehrmann’s rent by Seven in return for the interview.
The federal court released a document detailing Brittany Higgins’s personal injury claim with the commonwealth. The deed of settlement and release shows that the total settlement sum was $2.45m. Justice Lee ruled personal elements of the settlement would be kept confidential.
The trial will resume at 10.15am tomorrow.
Updated
Higgins received $2.445m settlement including legal costs from commonwealth, court documents reveal
The federal court has released a document detailing Brittany Higgins’ personal injury claim with the commonwealth.
The deed of settlement and release shows that the total settlement sum was $2.45m.
That included:
$400,000 for hurt, distress and humiliation suffered by Higgins, arising from alleged conduct occurring during the employment, prior to the termination, and in no way connected to the termination.
$1,480,000 as a “capital payment” paid to Higgins due to her loss of earning capacity.
$220,000 as a reimbursement for medical and “like expenses” incurred by Higgins arising from her alleged sexual assault and event which followed.
$100,000 for past and future domestic assistance.
$245,000 as a reimbursement of Higgins’ legal costs and disbursements.
During cross examination earlier in the defamation case, Higgins revealed she received $1.9m from the commonwealth after putting in a personal injury claim.
“Yes, I received money from the commonwealth,” Higgins said. “They came to an agreement that a failure of a duty of care was made and they did pay me.”
The total amount of the payment was higher – $2.3m – but legal fees and taxes were taken out of that, she said.
“I think it was around $2.3m,” Higgins said. “I think it was the amount and then those taxes and then the lawyer took some, but I’m not sure what that fee was. I was never focused on that fee. It was only what I received that I cared about.”
Updated
Maiden’s story ‘almost exactly’ what Higgins had told him, Dillaway says
Dillaway has told the court the allegations made by Higgins in the story written by Samantha Maiden were “consistent with what she had told me previously”, referring to what Higgins had told Dillaway about the alleged assault in 2019.
He said he had no knowledge that Higgins was planning to go public with her allegations. He said first became aware when he received a text message from someone with a link to the story while he was at the gym.
“I almost fell off the bench because as I read, it was almost exactly what she told me and I was kind of somewhat in shock reading it in the media,” he told the court.
Dillaway has been excused from the witness box and the trial will resume at 10.15am tomorrow.
Updated
Judge rules ‘peculiarly personal’ details contained in settlement remain confidential for 10 years
Justice Lee has ordered sensitive details about Higgins, including her medical information and treatment, be kept confidential for 10 years.
The “peculiarly personal” details are contained in the settlement of a personal injury claim Higgins signed with the commonwealth after her alleged rape in Parliament House, her barrister Nicholas Owens said.
Under cross-examination earlier in the trial Higgins said she received $1.9m after taxes and legal costs.
“The commonwealth admitted that they breached their duty of care and that they didn’t go through proper processes, so that’s actually why they settled with me,” Higgins told the court.
Lee made an order that the paragraph in the document under the heading “particulars of disabilities” should be redacted.
Among the reasons for the order was that Higgins is not a party to the defamation proceedings and the information is “highly confidential”.
Ben Dillaway has returned to the witness box and the court will sit through until 6pm, Lee said.
Updated
Higgins’s barrister asks for parts of settlement with commonwealth to be kept confidential
Barrister Nicholas Owens SC, for Higgins, is asking Justice Lee to keep confidential parts of Higgins’s settlement with the commonwealth.
Owens has asked for a redaction of bank details and signatures on the document, but also Higgins’s details of a “peculiarly personal, sensitive and private nature, such as medical information”.
Legal counsel for the commonwealth is in court and supports the application for confidentiality.
Updated
Dillaway contacted prime minister’s office to help Higgins access counselling
Dillaway told the court he spoke to a senior staffer in the prime minister’s office, Julian Leembruggen, in the hope Higgins could get some help for her distress after the alleged rape. Higgins had been told by the government’s employee assistance program that it would be months before she could see a counsellor.
He said he did have a meeting with Leembruggen, but “unfortunately” nothing came of it.
“I reached out to the prime minister’s office in the hope of getting Brittany help,” Dillaway said. “She had been telling me that week how she was not doing well. She wasn’t coping [and] there was a long wait for counselling. I thought if I reached out to someone such as the prime minister’s office that could speed things up.”
Dillaway said Higgins told him she had “no option” but to go to Perth with Reynolds during the election campaign.
“I had suggested to her as well that she could try and seek to work on the election campaign in Queensland, so she could be closer to family and friends and a support network,” Dillaway said. “She told me that she had to go … to Perth to work in Senator Reynolds’ office because that’s where they’ll be working.”
Updated
Walkley Foundation revokes Seven Spotlight interview nomination
The Walkley Foundation has revoked the nomination given to Seven Spotlight’s Trial and Error story about Bruce Lehrmann after reviewing documents released by the federal court.
Documents revealed Channel Seven paid Lehrmann’s fortnightly rent of $4,000 for a period in June for exclusive access to the former Liberal staffer.
if Lehrmann’s rent remained at $4,000 for the 12 months, he will receive a total benefit worth $104,000.
The Walkleys said Trial and Error “was not eligible for consideration” as a finalist because the entry did not accurately describe the “extent of benefits” provided to Lehrmann.
“The Board of The Walkley Foundation has reviewed documents uploaded to the Federal Court this week which show an exclusivity agreement made between Seven and Bruce Lehrmann in April 2023 and a leasing arrangement which provided Mr Lehrmann with 12 months of accommodation from 13 April 2023 to 12 April 2024,” a statement said.
It is the responsibility of The Walkley Foundation management to determine the eligibility of entries for consideration by the judging panels in each round of judging for the Walkley Awards.
Following a review of these documents, The Walkley Foundation Board has come to the unanimous conclusion that the Seven Spotlight story ‘Trial and Error’ was not eligible for consideration in the All Media Scoop of the Year category for the 2023 Walkley Awards as the entry did not accurately describe the extent of benefits provided to Mr Lehrmann in exchange for interviews, information and exclusive access.
The Walkley Foundation has revoked the story’s finalist status in the 68th Walkley Awards.
Updated
Higgins’s ex-partner Ben Dillaway giving evidence
Higgins’s ex-partner Ben Dillaway is now in the witness box.
Dillaway agreed that during the period surrounding the night of 22 March 2019 he exchanged extensive messages with Higgins. Dr Collins is taking him through the text messages and what he remembers Higgins told him at the time.
Dillaway said Higgins disclosed she had allegedly been sexually assaulted and when he met her for a drink in Canberra she broke down and cried. He said she was adamant she didn’t want a soul to know.
“She told me that she didn’t want a soul to know about what had happened to her,” Dillaway said. “So I observed that Ms Higgins was putting on a brave face and going about her tasks and her jobs as best as she could.”
Dillaway said he made several offers to Higgins to tell the prime minister’s office what had happened to her, and she eventually relented.
When they caught up for coffee in the Parliament House courtyard she said she “was not doing well”.
“You know, she told me how she spent an amount of time in a Parliament House bathroom, crying [and] how she was generally not coping well, which is why I had been making offers to reach out to the prime minister’s office to try and get her help during that week.”
Updated
Former colleague Nikita Irvine continues evidence in Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial
Irvine said she remembers Fiona Brown calling her while Reynolds was in a cabinet meeting in Brisbane and saying she needed to speak to the minister urgently.
“She called Fiona and I witnessed her take the phone call,” Irvine said.
Irvine said she was with staffer Jesse Wotton when Reynolds got off the phone.
“Linda Reynolds came over after she had hung up the phone and she just said to Jesse Wotton ‘have you spoken to Bruce or had any conversations with Bruce?’ and Jesse said ‘no’ and she said ‘you’re not allowed to talk to Bruce’,” Irvine told the court.
Updated
Irvine did not think the Reynolds staffers she spoke to tried to ‘cover up’ alleged ministerial office incident
Irvine told the court after Higgins went public with her allegation, she discussed Higgins’ alleged assault with Reynolds’ media adviser Lauren Gain and they “both believe Brittany”.
Irvine said when she had a conversation with Reynolds’ chief of staff Fiona Brown there was no indication she was trying to cover up the incident.
She said she only spoke to Reynolds and Brown, separately, on one occasion and they did not give her the impression they were trying to cover up the incident.
“I said ‘Fiona, Brittany has told me what’s happened’. And she said ‘yes, it’s very disconcerting’,” Irvine told the court. “She mentioned that Bruce was already in trouble over a security incident, which … I don’t know anything about, but he wasn’t hard to get rid of and they moved him on pretty quickly.”
Updated
Irvine tells court she learnt Lehrmann no longer worked for Reynolds from liaison officer
Irvine told the court Higgins disclosed to her that she had been assaulted by Lehrmann after she was told by departmental liaison officer Chris Payne that there had been an incident with Lehrmann and he no longer worked for Reynolds. Irvine said Payne said “there had been an incident in the office”. “[Payne] said, to the best of my recollection, there’s been an incident in the office. It’s quite serious. It involves Bruce and Bruce doesn’t work here anymore,” Irvine said.
Irvine agreed with Whybrow that Payne was very discreet in that conversation.
Irvine said she “didn’t really think much of it because it wasn’t my business. But I did notice that Brittany was very down.”
It was after that conversation with Payne that she reached out to Higgins to check up if she was OK, she said.
Updated
Linda Reynolds felt ‘very sick’ about Higgins’ disclosure, Irvine tells court
Irvine has returned to the witness box and is being cross-examined by Whybrow.
Earlier, she told Collins she had discussed Higgins’ disclosure with Reynolds as she “just thought it was important”.
“I didn’t obviously tell anyone else. I just wanted to tell my two bosses that I knew because I thought that was appropriate,” Irvine said. “I told Linda Reynolds when we were sitting next to each other on a plane and on a tarmac in Canberra, about, it would have been the next week after this so, it would have been the week starting I think, maybe the first of April.”
“I told her and all she said was ‘Yes, I feel very sick. Nothing like this has ever happened to me’. And I just left it at that.”
Updated
The hearing has resumed after a short adjournment. Lehrmann and Wilkinson are in the room today but Higgins is not.
Updated
Nikita Irvine believed Higgins was telling her she had been sexually assaulted
Irvine has told the federal court she had a conversation with Higgins not long after Higgins had said she reported the alleged rape to Brown and Reynolds.
“I had to go to the passport office and I asked if anyone would like to go for a walk with me,” Irvine said. “I was trying to invite Brittany on that walk because I was a bit concerned for her. She did look very sad.
“I said, ‘Are you okay?’ She said ‘No’.”
Higgins confided to her that she was getting a lift home with Lehrmann from the nightclub and he said he wanted to show her some whisky and he stopped off at Parliament House and she woke up on the minister’s couch and Lehrmann was “on top of her”.
Irvine said she believed Higgins was telling her she had been sexually assaulted by Lehrmann.
Updated
Linda Reynolds' former aide tells court Lehrmann gave her 'bad vibes' based on 'women's intuition'
Senator Reynolds’ former aide-de-camp Nikita Irvine is now in the witness box and has told the federal court she was present at the night at The Dock on 22 March 2019.
Irvine said she had no meaningful interactions with Lehrmann and Higgins on the night and she did not accompany them to the nightclub 88mph after The Dock.
Irvine said she had met Lehrmann before that night and he gave her “bad vibes”, and explained that it was “women’s intuition”.
When I started in [Reynolds’] office, I had bad vibes on Bruce and his future in the office. He’s not the sort of person I would have socialised with.
Updated
Security guard Mark Fairweather gives evidence
A second security guard on duty that night, Mark Fairweather, said Higgins “did stumble a little bit” and was asked to take her shoes off to go through the metal detector.
Asked by Whybrow how intoxicated Higgins and Lehrmann were, Fairweather said they were “moderately” intoxicated, and if they had been very drunk he would have refused them entry.
Fairweather agreed with Whybrow that he had observed Lehrmann leaving hastily and looking down at his phone in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Fairweather has been excused.
Updated
Brittany Higgins found ‘completely naked’ by security guard and 'rolled over into foetal position', court hears
Brittany Higgins was “completely naked” and “rolled over into the foetal position” facing Senator Reynolds’ desk when a security guard did a welfare check after 4am, the federal court has heard.
Security guard Nikola Anderson said Higgins did not appear to be in any trouble or distress and she opened her eyes and looked at her but did not speak; and her make-up was intact.
Anderson said Higgins’ white dress and shoes were next to the couch and “it just looked like it had been taken off and thrown on the floor”.
“She rolled over into the foetal position and faced the desk, the minister’s desk,” Anderson said.
Anderson has completed her evidence and another security guard is now in the witness box.
Updated
Nikola Anderson says she escorted Lehrmann and Higgins to minister’s suite
Lehrmann’s barrister, Steve Whybrow SC, is now cross-examining Anderson, who worked at Parliament House for 12 years and was on duty the night Lehrmann and Higgins entered the ministerial suite. Anderson agrees with Whybrow that she escorted the two up to the minister’s suite and used a key to open the door.
Anderson said she has said before that Higgins was intoxicated but she “can’t make a judgement” about the scale of her intoxication.
At roughly 4.20am Anderson said she returned to Reynolds’ office and entered the suite and walked through the doors.
Whybrow is taking her to photographs of the suite to assist her evidence.
“I started announcing myself as soon as I walked in through the reception, the very main doors of the office, so throughout that walk,” Anderson said.
Updated
Parliament House security guard Nikola Anderson is in the witness box
Nikola Anderson, a Parliament House security guard, is now in the witness box. She said she was on duty at the house on 23 March 2019 which was the night Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped in a ministerial suite.
Anderson is being questioned by Network Ten’s silk Matt Collins KC about writing an incident report on 23 March.
Updated
Witness asks to be excused from giving evidence due to “vulnerable” mental health
Senator Linda Reynolds’ former chief of staff Fiona Brown has asked to be excused from giving evidence at the defamation trial due to her “vulnerable” mental health.
A barrister for Brown has told Justice Lee that Brown has returned from the UK and is in Sydney, but has received medical advice that she not give evidence at the Lehrmann trial “having regard to her vulnerable state”.
“We have sought an updating report from her psychiatrist, which I understand is in train,” the barrister said.
Lehrmann’s legal counsel has indicated Brown’s evidence is key to its case.
Justice Lee said he is not opposed to shutting down the live stream while Brown gives her testimony or accepting an affidavit from Brown. He has called for additional medical evidence and will decide later how she gives her evidence.
The court heard Brown’s legal counsel is acting pro bono and she has applied for financial assistance from the commonwealth as a former employee.
Updated
Justice Michael Lee has begun the hearing by dealing with the side issue of legal costs between Lisa Wilkinson and her employer Network Ten. Wilkinson is suing Ten over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.
The Project presenter, who conducted the interview with Brittany Higgins, chose to use a separate legal team to Network Ten to defend the defamation case brought by Lehrmann.
Lee will hear more about the Wilkinson case at the end of the trial, estimated to be 14 December.
Updated
Federal court continues to livestream the case
This blog will cover major developments during the day. In the interests of open justice and due to significant public interest, the federal court is livestreaming this case.
You can follow the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live stream on YouTube here.
Last week Justice Michael Lee warned if members of the public denigrate the barristers on social media he will reconsider allowing the case to be livestreamed.
Lee heard that court staff were monitoring activity on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Lee said:
I just make it perfectly clear to those observing that abuse of any legal practitioners involved in the case, it won’t be tolerated.
And if the situation becomes one which I consider the benefits of livestreaming are outweighed by the fact that it’s encouraging activity which I regard undermines the integrity of the process then I’ll cease the live stream.
Updated
What’s coming up today
The Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial will hear from more witnesses for the defence today in Sydney, including from Parliament House security guards.
The federal court last night released two deeds of settlement with media organisations sued by Lehrmann who settled with the former Liberal staffer before the trial began.
According to the documents, Lehrmann was paid a total of $445,000 towards his legal costs to drop his claim of defamation.
The ABC agreed to pay $150,000 in an out-of-court settlement last month and News Corp settled for $295,000 in May for an article published by news.com.au in 2021.
Read more:
Updated
