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National
Maeve Bannister

Higgins' cross-examination ends in emotion

"He was physically violating me. He was in my body. I know," Brittany Higgins told the jury. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Brittany Higgins has finished giving evidence in a trial she never thought would eventuate.

The second week of the ACT Supreme Court trial ended with an emotional cross-examination of Ms Higgins after the jury heard evidence from more than 20 other witnesses.

Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent.

Ms Higgins directly addressed Lehrmann for the first time and told him, "nothing was fine after what you did to me, nothing".

For the first time, the jury heard Lehrmann's version of events from the night of the alleged assault.

In an April 2021 police interview, Lehrmann said he and Ms Higgins went to Parliament House after a night drinking with colleagues because he needed to collect his house keys and she also needed to drop by the office.

The pair worked together as staffers in then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds' office and shared an Uber to parliament.

Ms Higgins denied indicating she needed to pass by the office that night and said she had thought she was going home.

Lehrmann said he did not think Ms Higgins was drunk and only felt moderately intoxicated himself.

When they arrived at parliament, Lehrmann told security he was there to collect work documents.

He claimed he did not see Ms Higgins again before he left the office.

His barrister Steven Whybrow put to Ms Higgins that she did not see Lehrmann inside Senator Reynolds' office and she was not sexually assaulted by him.

"He was in there. He was physically violating me. He was in my body. I know," she said.

Former Parliament House security guard Nikola Anderson, who had earlier escorted the staffers to the office, was asked by her supervisor to do a welfare check on Ms Higgins after Lehrmann exited the building without her.

She described finding Ms Higgins "completely naked" on a couch in Senator Reynolds' dimly lit office.

"As I've opened the door, Ms Higgins was lying on her back, completely naked on that lounge," she said.

"She's opened her eyes, she's looked at me, and then she's proceeded to roll over into the foetal position, facing the desk."

Asked about this interaction, Ms Higgins said she did not recall it.

Parliament security reported that the two staffers had accessed the office late at night to their chief of staff Fiona Brown.

Ms Brown told the court when she asked Lehrmann about it, he said they had returned to the office to drink whisky.

Lehrmann's employment contract was terminated as a result of the security breach, which was his second strike after previously failing to properly handle classified documents.

In an email exchange between Senator Reynolds and Lehrmann, he said he was "embarrassed, ashamed and deeply remorseful" about the breach.

"Minister, at no time was I acting with malice, ill-will or an intent to cause indirect or direct damage to you, your office or your staff," he wrote.

Lehrmann told police he considered suicide after media reports later surfaced that he was the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins.

Ms Higgins gave interviews to two media organisations about her alleged assault before reopening a police complaint against Lehrmann.

He described social media as "relentless" in the days after the reports surfaced.

He told police numerous accounts purporting to be him were created such as "Bruce the rapist".

Lehrmann found out he was the man at the centre of the accusation when a journalist contacted his then boss for comment in 2021, two years after the alleged assault.

"I was ready to go. That week I lined up everything to go," he told police.

"My single mum would be OK. She would get my super."

He told police he had needed to access mental health support because he was at his "wits end".

Ms Higgins reiterated that she reopened her complaint with the police and gave interviews to the media with two different objectives.

The first was to seek justice through the court process for what she alleged happened to her.

The second was to publicise the "rife", systemic toxic culture inside Parliament House.

"There are a dozen stories like mine," Ms Higgins said.

Kelly Higgins told the court her daughter became distant and quiet after the alleged assault.

"She'd lost a lot of weight. She got quite thin. She just looked quite broken," she said.

Former staffer and ex-boyfriend Ben Dillaway said after the alleged rape "a light turned off" inside Ms Higgins.

"She was a broken, shattered person," he said.

Former department liaison officer Christopher Payne, who worked in Senator Reynold's office, said Ms Higgins told him about the alleged assault in the week after it occurred.

After Ms Higgins described waking up on the couch to Lehrmann on top of her, Mr Payne said he asked her directly if she had been raped.

"She said, 'I could not have consented. It would have been like f***ing a log,' and at that point she was very upset again," Mr Payne said.

Originally slated to run for between four and six weeks, the Crown is expected to close its case in half that time, early next week.

Senator Reynolds is expected to give evidence on Tuesday and Senator Michaelia Cash, for whom Ms Higgins worked after the 2019 federal election, is also listed as a witness.

The two journalists who first published Ms Higgins' story are no longer expected to give evidence, with the initial witness list of 52 now reduced to 32.

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