Lehrmann trial live updates: Case enters third week; Linda Reynolds, Michaelia Cash give evidence

Good morning, Angus Thompson sitting in the public gallery of the Bruce Lehrmann trial in the ACT Supreme Court.

Brittany Higgins, a former Liberal staffer, alleges Lehrmann raped her in former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds’ office in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019, after a drunken night out with colleagues.

Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to a single charge of having sex with Higgins without her consent, being reckless as to whether she was consenting. He denies having sex with her at all.

Prosecutor Shane Drumgold, SC, put to Reynolds that when she had a meeting with Higgins on April 1, 2019, “your dominant concern was that this would harm your pending election”.

Reynolds replied: “I categorically reject that assertion.”

Under cross-examination from Lehrmann’s barrister, Steven Whybrow, Reynolds said she would “absolutely not” discourage Higgins from maintaining a police complaint.

She said she sought advice from then-AFP assistant commissioner Leanne Close about how to deal with the complaint, to which Close replied, “you take your lead from Higgins … it’s her story”.

Reynolds’ evidence has ended and the prosecution case has finished.

The trial will resume tomorrow. Thank you for joining us.

Reynolds denied an allegation of a staff member sexually assaulting another would be politically embarrassing in the lead-up to an election.

She said after Higgins told her in the April 1 meeting that she had been really drunk and had woken up the next morning in the office and had to get dressed, “I thought I’m not the right person to be talking to”.

“I said, as her boss, I’m not a trained counsellor, and not the person to be having this conversation with,” Reynolds said.

“I suggested to her that she might rather have this conversation with somebody more qualified and she should talk to the AFP.”

Reynolds said she was “shocked” after hearing of a security breach involving two of her staff members in March 2019.

“It was reported that two staff had entered the office out of hours, which is highly unusual and very inappropriate,” Reynolds said.

She said her then-chief-of-staff, Fiona Brown, had spoken to Higgins twice, including on the Thursday after the meeting.

“She [Brown] was a bit concerned about her behaviour ... she [Higgins] seemed to be distressed. Ms Higgins said she wanted to go to the doctor,” Reynolds said, adding she was strongly supportive.

Reynolds said prior to a meeting with Higgins the following Monday, she did not query why Higgins was so upset and Brown did not offer an explanation.

“At that point, I had no need because in my mind it was a security breach … my concern was to find out from her perspective why they were there and also why she was upset,” she said.

The trial has broken for lunch and will return this afternoon.

Before the break, Queensland state MP Sam O’Connor gave evidence via video link.

He told the court Higgins, with whom he is friends, alluded to the alleged sexual assault but didn’t fully disclose it to him in March 2019.

“She described it as a ‘super f----d up thing that happened’,” O’Connor told the court.

He told the court that after learning more about the allegation later on, he remembered her saying that “this would define her, that she would be known for this instead of being good at her job”.

“I remember being pretty angry about it as well,” he said.