Turning to the WA Supreme Court now, where Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Leanne Close has told of her shock after discovering she was “in the middle of a potential crime scene” midway through a meeting with Liberal senator Linda Reynolds about Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape.
While giving evidence in the former defence minister’s defamation suit against Higgins, Close told the court she texted Reynolds to arrange a meeting at her ministerial office on April 4, 2019.
It was there that Close informed Reynolds she and her colleague was there to discuss an alleged sexual assault, which prompted Reynolds to request her chief of staff Fiona Brown join them.
Brittany Higgins outside the Federal Court in Sydney.Credit: James Brickwood
But Close told the court it wasn’t until she was inside the office that she became aware that is where the incident had occurred.
“Senator Reynolds pointed to the couch and said ‘it happened right there’,” Close told the court.
“I was shocked … I was thinking ‘we’re sitting in the middle of a potential crime scene that hasn’t been examined’ and I was concerned about the security implications of two staff having sex on a couch in the office, and that they had been intoxicated.
“I didn’t understand how they obtained access and the security implications of that, let alone a young woman being found on that couch.”
While poring over contemporaneous notes that have since become evidence in the defamation trial, Close recalled her concern for Higgins’ welfare as Reynolds told her the former did not wish to report the incident over fears for her job.
And Close told the court she was equally concerned about the fact the office had since been cleaned.
The meeting with the AFP occurred just three days after Reynolds and Brown met with Higgins in the same office regarding what was then being treated as a breach of parliamentary security.
When grilled by Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett, Close conceded she was unaware at the time that other AFP personnel were aware of the security breach as early as March 28, 2019 and that police had offered Higgins assistance after lodging a complaint on April 1, 2019 she ultimately opted not to pursue.
Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann at the office in Parliament House on March 23, 2019 after a night out.
Lehrmann has maintained his innocence since his 2022 criminal trial was aborted. However, the Federal Court found the rape allegation to be true on the balance of probabilities in a separate action Lehrmann is now appealing.
Source Agencies
