Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: former staffer recalls Brittany Higgins’ ‘extremely confronting’ words at Parliament House

Key events

Defence liaison officer told Higgins found in ‘state of undress’, court hears

Payne gave evidence that early in the week following the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, he had been told by minister Linda Reynolds’s chief-of-staff, Fiona Brown, about an incident involving Lehrmann in Parliament House.

The defence liaison officer said Brown began the conversation with the words: “You’re never going to believe what happened”.

And Brown went on to say that Higgins had been found in a “state of undress” in the ministerial office, the court heard.

“Fiona came to what we call the DLO [defence liaison officer] room, which was the room in the suite where I was based, and advised that she had been told there had been an incident over the weekend,” Payne said.

“And then she proceeded to describe that she’d had a conversation, she didn’t indicate with whom, but had found out that Brittany and Bruce had returned to the ministerial wing over the weekend. And that at some point later on, Brittany had been found in a state of undress.”

Payne has also given evidence about Lehrmann leaving a defence document unsecured.

Updated at 22.08 EST

Lehrmann’s boss checked out his claim of new job with Asio

This morning, the court has heard that Lehrmann claimed to his chief-of-staff, Fiona Brown, that he had a new job at Asio.

The AFP officer Rebecca Cleaves gave evidence that after she interviewed Higgins, she spoke to Brown about the termination of Lehrmann from Senator Linda Reynolds’ office.

Brown told her that Lehrmann had been terminated and handed his pass in but had refused to come back into the office when directed.

Cleaves: “She said he was getting a job with Asio and name-dropped. So the chief of staff [Brown] called Asio and spoke to a person whom she knew. Confirmed he was not going to work there and … this person had never heard of him.”

Updated at 22.07 EST

A warning for readers: this blog contains graphic details of allegations of sexual assault.

Federal agent Katie Thelning is now in the witness box giving her account of the meeting she and Cleaves had with Higgins on 1 April 2019.

“[Brittany said] she had been tasked with [election] campaign preparation as it was a Friday and everyone was stressed,” Thelning said.

“They had Friday drinks. A group of colleagues went, and her colleague Bruce went as well. Ms Higgins had suggested that Bruce should come; at about 6:30pm they arrived at The Dock. She, Ms Higgins, drank about four gin and tonics. About 7:30pm the others arrived. At about 10:30pm a few of them left.”

Higgins told the two federal agents that the assault was “vaginal penile sex”, Thelning said. She said Higgins felt “grossed out” as she could smell what had happened. She went into the minister’s office and was sick.

“And then she goes on to confirm that it was Lehrmann, Bruce was his name. He’s an adviser to minister Reynolds. He now works in the intelligence space and is no longer working in parliament. She had known Bruce for about a month. He is about her age. She then gave us Bruce’s phone number.”

Updated at 22.05 EST