Linda Reynolds ‘concerned’ about her going to police, court told

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The courtroom heard she recorded the dialog with Attempt someday after a six-hour pre-recorded interview with journalist Lisa Wilkinson for tv present The Venture on January 27, 2021, and whereas talking with him, he made reference to a different incident the place a lady within the Liberal Occasion had been assaulted and didn’t go to police. She mentioned she was asking questions for “corroboration”.

“I didn’t suppose anybody would imagine me, so I wanted to have him say it himself, that he (a) knew concerning the assault, (b) that they knew about it in 2019 and (c) that Michaelia Money knew, and all of that’s in that audio,” she mentioned.

Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash.

Liberal Senator Michaelia Money.Credit score:Alex Ellinghausen

She mentioned she recorded Money with out her data on February 5 throughout a cellphone name by which the senator tried to dissuade her from resigning, including that all through the decision Money was pretending she didn’t know what had occurred, and “thought a safety guard has assaulted me”.

“It was ridiculous, it was the weirdest name I’d ever had in my life,” she mentioned.

Higgins gave proof that in 2019, quickly after the alleged assault, she had a gathering with Reynolds and her chief-of-staff Fiona Brown within the workplace the place the rape allegedly occurred. “It was made clear to me that … they have been involved about me going to the police,” Higgins mentioned.

“My interpretation of that was that if I raised it with police, there have been going to be issues, and so they wished to be concerned or knowledgeable, however simply by having the assembly within the room all of it appeared actually off, and my interpretation of that was [it was] a little bit of a scare tactic or intimidation tactic. Whether or not it was intentional … that’s not a good assumption.”

Higgins told the court Linda Reynolds, then the defence industries minister, wanted to be informed if she went to police.

Higgins instructed the courtroom Linda Reynolds, then the defence industries minister, wished to learn if she went to police.Credit score:Alex Ellinghausen

Higgins instructed the courtroom she was phoned by an Australian Federal Police officer in the course of the 2019 election asking if she was being pressured to not come ahead, “and on the time I denied it”.

Higgins mentioned that after initially reporting the allegation to Brown, former prime minister Scott Morrison’s chief of employees John Kunkel and Daniel Wong from Morrison’s workplace “have been coming out and in” and Brown’s manner in direction of her modified. “It wasn’t about my wellbeing,” she mentioned.

Higgins mentioned she felt pressured by her office to not pursue the matter legally after being denied the choice of working from her house on the Gold Coast in the course of the election in order that she might communicate to investigators.

“It grew to become actually obvious that it was my job on the road and I toed the social gathering line and determined to not proceed,” Higgins instructed the courtroom.

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“In not unsure phrases Fiona Brown instructed me that if I wasn’t going to WA [where Reynolds would be based during the election] then I wouldn’t have a job … at the moment I’d gone my whole life working for this second. I’d gone to uni, this was my dream, I wasn’t going to let this particular person take it away from me.”

Nevertheless, she mentioned that, in the course of the election, Reynolds didn’t like having her in her firm, which she understood to be a “direct end result” of the criticism.

Challenged by Whybrow, Higgins admitted to inconsistencies in a number of components of her proof, together with that she was flawed concerning the period of time she saved the costume she was allegedly raped in stowed beneath her mattress, the timing of a panic assault she mentioned she had in parliament, and the timing of her father planning to go to in March 2019.

The courtroom was proven photographs of Reynolds’ workplace, and the sofa, on which Higgins mentioned she was “jammed up into the nook” by Lehrmann, who had her left leg pinned down and her proper leg pinned up “like a prop.”

Higgins and Lehrmann have been half of a bigger group of colleagues who began consuming at The Dock bar in Kingston on the evening of March 22, earlier than a smaller group progressed to a different bar known as 88mph, the courtroom was instructed.

Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Higgins.

Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not responsible to sexually assaulting Higgins.Credit score:Alex Ellinghausen

The courtroom heard that when that group dispersed, Higgins and Lehrmann determined to share a cab, and that Lehrmann had mentioned he wanted to drop by parliament to select up some paperwork.

Higgins sobbed in courtroom as she watched footage of herself unable to place her excessive heels again on after passing by way of parliamentary safety at 1.44am as a result of she was too drunk. Visibly upset all through the airing of the CCTV footage, Higgins was requested by Crown prosecution Shane Drumgold about her degree of intoxication.

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“I don’t keep in mind any of this, so it was fairly excessive,” Higgins mentioned as she sat within the witness field. Lehrmann, who was additionally seen within the footage, arms crossed on the safety level, ready for Higgins to step again into her footwear.

She was unable to take action, and the jury was proven one other clip of Lehrmann, a feminine safety guard, and a barefoot Higgins carrying her excessive heels in a single hand because the trio walked down a carpeted hall to the then-office of Reynolds, the place Lehrmann and Higgins have been let inside.

The jury was proven one other photograph: one taken by Higgins a number of days after the alleged incident, exhibiting a crimson mark on her thigh. Standing up within the witness field, Higgins mentioned the bruise seemed to be on her proper leg.

Minimize by way of the noise of federal politics with information, views and professional evaluation from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can signal as much as our weekly Inside Politics publication right here.

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