Ex-gov’t aide testifies in Australia rape trial

CANBERRA — A former government aide allegedly sexually assaulted inside Australia’s federal parliament gave her first direct testimony on Wednesday to the high-profile rape trial.

Brittany Higgins alleges she was raped by former political aide Bruce Lehrmann, 27, on a couch inside a minister’s office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.

The allegations first came to light through media reports in early 2021 and — on the back of the global #MeToo movement — sparked national protests and multiple investigations.

Lehrmann denies the charge.

Higgins, questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday, described the boozy culture at the centre of Australian politics.

She said that on one occasion before the alleged rape, Lehrmann had tried to kiss her after the pair had been drinking.

“We’d been drinking. On a Wednesday, everyone will drink at the end of a sitting day. It was quite late, I believe it was around 9:30pm,” she told the court.

“At that point he made an approach at me and attempted to kiss me. I rebuffed the kiss, mostly out of shock.”

The court heard that on the night of the alleged rape, Higgins had consumed 11 alcoholic drinks in the space of some four-and-a-half hours.

Higgins told the court she had paid for just two drinks that night, and Lehrmann had bought her multiple rounds.

Lehrmann, wearing a pastel tie and dark navy suit, was present in the courtroom for Higgins’s testimony.

Both Lehrmann and Higgins were political aides for Australia’s previous centre-right government.

Pregnancy fears 

The supreme court in Australia’s capital Canberra was played tapes on Wednesday of two separate police interviews conducted with Higgins in the wake of the allegations.

“It was never something that I wanted to voluntarily share with people,” Higgins said in a police interview conducted in February 2021.

“I find it much easier to tell strangers than I do to tell family, it’s really hard.”

Higgins told police in a second interview — conducted in May 2021 — that she feared she might be pregnant.

“I remember buying a pregnancy test in Perth. There was a convenience store not far from my hotel,” she told police.

“I was quite slow on the uptake of processing everything. I was late and I was stressed.”

The trial made front-page news after opening on Tuesday, when Lehrmann’s lawyers rejected the charge and reportedly said he had faced “trial by media”.

A number of prominent Australian politicians, government officials and journalists are expected to give evidence in the course of the trial.