Bruce Lehrmann’s account of the night he is accused of raping Brittany Higgins at Parliament House has been heard in court for the first time, with the accused telling police the alleged assault “simply didn’t happen”.
Mr Lehrmann’s police interview was played before the jury on the first day of the second week of his trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
Ms Higgins has accused Mr Lehrmann of raping her at Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
Ms Higgins was unavailable in court for most of the second week of the trial, with the former Liberal staffer finishing undergoing cross examination by Mr Lehrmann’s lawyer on Friday.
In her absence, the jury was shown video of an interview conducted between police and Mr Lehrmann, which was recorded on April 19, 2021.
A non-publication order prohibited publishing details of the footage until now.
In the interview, as well as addressing Ms Higgins’ allegations, Mr Lehrmann was questioned about his purpose for entering Parliament that night, and revealed the moment he found out about the allegations leading to thoughts of self-harm.
The interviewing police officers informed Mr Lehrmann that Ms Higgins had reported an allegation to police that he had engaged in sexual intercourse with her without consent.
“Obviously I reject that allegation because it simply didn’t happen,” the accused told police in the interview.
Speaking about the night of March 22, 2019, Mr Lehrmann said he couldn’t remember whether Ms Higgins extended the invite to him personally to attend The Dock that night, or whether the invitation came through his colleague, Austin Wenke
The court heard Mr Lehrmann tell the police officers that was “not intoxicated at all” while he was at The Dock and that he only bought “one or two rounds of drinks”.
He told police that he treated the night as a parliamentary event so he was not “carrying on or anything”.
“It was actually a very good night,” the jury heard him say in the video.
Mr Lehrmann said he was the one to suggest part of the group, which included Ms Higgins, head to the 88mph club as it was a “favourite” of his.
The court heard the accused say he didn’t remember buying a lot of drinks at the second venue, noting his bank records stated he only spent $40 at the club.
In the recorded interview, Mr Lehrmann told police that at some point after midnight, he informed the group that he was planning to leave and needed to stop in at Parliament House to grab his keys before he went home.
He said Ms Higgins indicated that she “also had to drop by Parliament”, which is when he offered for them to share an Uber as they both needed to head to the office.
Mr Lehrmann said when he and Ms Higgins were going through security to get into Parliament House she was “taking a while to put her shoes back on”.
He told police he was not intoxicated to a degree where he was unable to sign in, noting Ms Higgins “also did that herself”.
Ms Higgins has continually maintained she was unable to write her own name on the Parliament House sign-in sheet due to her level of intoxication.
When shown a copy of the sign-in sheet last week, she told the court her handwriting did not appear anywhere on the document.
Parliament House security guard, Mark Fairweather, who was working on the night in question, told the court that Mr Lehrmann wrote both his and Ms Higgins’ names on the sheet.
However, another security guard working that night, Nikola Anderson, told the court she recalled them both writing their own names.
The court heard when the pair entered the ministerial office, Mr Lehrmann turned left to his desk and Ms Higgins turned right towards the minister’s suite.
“I didn’t see her again,” the accused said in his police interview.
Mr Lehrmann said he got what he needed for the weekend from his desk and also attended to some question time folders, before ordering an Uber and leaving the building.
Higgins’ intoxication level questioned
When asked by police to clarify his level of intoxication while at Parliament House, Mr Lehrmann described it as “moderate”.
He said at The Dock he was drinking beer but at 88mph he would have switched to “stronger drinks” such as vodka.
In the interview, Mr Lehrmann said the group was all having a “good time” at the club, though he didn’t observe anyone to be “so grossly intoxicated that we were not functioning”.
When asked to describe his level of intoxication when leaving the club on a scale of one to 10, Mr Lehrmann put it at a seven, saying Ms Higgins was “probably the same”.
“I certainly recall fixing the question time folders properly and on Monday they were all fine. I recall conversations from earlier in the evening to do that. I was not in a state where I was not able to function,” the court heard Mr Lehrmann say in his police interview.
In her first police interview, the court previously heard Ms Higgins describe being heavily intoxicated before heading to 88mph club with Mr Lehrmann and two others.
She put her intoxication level at about 70 per cent and didn’t fully remember having the conversation about leaving the first venue.
“It is really patchy, I will admit that freely. I was really drunk,” the court heard her tell the police.
Ms Higgins recalled having more drinks once the group reached the new venue, including shots.
She told the police that when she tripped up the stairs attempting to leave the club was when it became clear to her she was heavily intoxicated.
“I was really intoxicated, to the point where it was weird,” she said.
“I felt like I was at that point of obliteration.”
Ms Higgins told the police it was the drunkest she had ever been in her life.
Lauren Gain, a former colleague of Ms Higgins who was there on the night of the drinks, gave evidence on Monday about the complainant’s high level of intoxication.
When asked about Ms Higgins’ level of intoxication when they entered the club, Ms Gain said she remembered “thinking she was quite drunk”.
“I remember thinking I was quite drunk also,” she said.
Ms Gain said at one point in the night, Ms Higgins fell over as she was walking back to where the group was sitting.
Different reasons Lehrmann gave for entering Parliament House
During the recording of the interview, one of the police officer’s told Mr Lehrmann that they had interviewed his former chief of staff, Fiona Brown as part of their investigation.
Reading from part of her statement to police, the officer noted Ms Brown had claimed Mr Lehrmann told her he had gone back to the office to drink whiskey, saying he had two glasses.
The court heard Mr Lehrmann disagreeing with this in the interview, saying he did not have alcohol in the office and that certainly wasn’t his reasoning for going there.
He told the police that he had returned to the office to get the keys to his apartment and while there ended up making some notes on some question time folders for the coming Monday.
During the first week of the trial, the jury was played audio of Mr Lehrmann speaking to Parliament House security via intercom on the night of the alleged assault.
“Hi mate, Bruce Lerhmann here with Minister Linda Reynolds. I have been requested to pick up some documents. I have forgotten my pass,” the court heard the accused saying in the audio.
When giving evidence on Tuesday, Ms Brown confirmed that during her meeting with Mr Lehrmann he told her that he had come back to the office “to drink some whiskey”.
“I questioned that and said, ‘It seems a bit unusual to me. Who comes back to the office to drink whiskey?’ Ms Brown said.
“He said, ‘Oh yes, people do it all the time’ and I said, ‘Well, it’s not something I’ve heard of.’”
Ms Brown said she recalled him telling her that he had two glasses of whiskey.
She told the jury that alcohol was not something that was “retained in the office” but that is not to say that people did not have it in their cupboards.
This week Nicole Hamer, former senior advisor to Senator Linda Reynolds, told the court Mr Lehrmann was known to have “quite a big range of alcohol” in the office before Senator Reynolds moved into the new ministerial suite.
“There was spirits, there was whiskey, there was wine. It was quite a substantial amount,” Ms Hamer said.
She told the court she didn’t know whether Mr Lehrmann kept any alcohol in the new office space.
How Lehrmann found out about allegations
The court heard that Mr Lehrmann found out about the allegations against him on February 15, 2021, when a journalist emailed his boss.
He told police his boss pulled him into a meeting and informed him the journalist heard from government sources that Mr Lehrmann was the man at the centre of the allegations made by Ms Higgins and asked if he wanted to comment.
“That’s how I found out that day,” he said.
Mr Lehrmann said after learning of the allegations against him he was “ready to go”, indicating he was considering self-harm.
“My single mum was going to be OK, she was going to get my super,” he told police.
He said it was “hurtful” when he received calls from journalists, saying even members of his family in the US that he hardly knew were getting calls.
“I know in politics when something like this happens you are done,” he said.
The court heard Mr Lehrmann say it was a “very tough four months” but he had since received mental health support.
“My world has been rocked,” he told police.