‘Sold a pup’: Lehrmann never had sex with Higgins, defence lawyer says

In a police record of interview played to the jury, Higgins, who is giving evidence in person on Wednesday, said, “I was crying throughout the entire process … he was on top of me, I said ‘no’ at least half a dozen times. He did not stop, he kept going.”

Supreme Court chief justice Lucy McCallum earlier warned potential juror they might be familiar with the names of Higgins and Lehrmann.

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“It’s become a trial that has a momentum of its own,” McCallum said on Tuesday morning, adding that members of the jury panel who attended last year’s March for Justice outside Parliament House or followed Higgins on Twitter “might” want to exclude themselves.

“If you’re a member of the party faithful, if you have formed a preconceived idea about this case, which you do not think you can stand back from in light of the evidence, you should come forward and tell me that,” she said.

In recounting the prosecution’s version of events that led to the alleged rape, Drumgold said Higgins, who had been working for former Coalition minister Steven Ciobo, and Lehrmann met up when two separate groups of staffers mingled at the Dock bar and restaurant in Kingston, Canberra.

The court heard Higgins had about 10 drinks at the Dock, which had been bought by Lehrmann and others, and a shot of liquor at another venue, 88mph, where Higgins was so intoxicated that she was falling over.

“She says that was the point she knew she had to leave because she was as drunk as she had ever been in her life,” Drumgold said.

The court heard Lehrmann suggested they share a cab and said he had to stop by Parliament House to pick something up from work.

Drumgold said Lehrmann gave police two reasons for going to Parliament: firstly, that he had left his keys in his office, and secondly, that after speaking to Defence staff at the Dock, he was prompted to go back and stick tabs on a question-time brief.

“The second reason we will say is a lie,” Drumgold said.

Higgins told police in the interview, “I question it all now but at the time it didn’t seem unsafe, it didn’t seem like a situation that was dangerous. It just felt like I was going to into work with a colleague.”

The court heard one of the security guards at the ministerial entrance observed that Higgins, who had to take her shoes off to pass through a metal detector, “couldn’t get her shoes back on for the life of her”.

Drumgold said Lehrmann said in his police interview that after entering the office, Higgins went into the minister’s suite and he went to his desk, got what he needed for the weekend, ordered an Uber and left. The timeline of the Uber booking will be scrutinised.

The court heard Higgins could not remember whether she had gone to the couch willingly “or was guided there”.

“She states that during the sexual assault … her dress was still on her body and scrunched up around the waist,” Drumgold said.

The court heard that when a security guard checked on her at 4.15am, Higgins was lying naked on the lounge.

“This is a greater state of undress than the complainant remembers during the sexual assault,” Drumgold said.