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 have issue with it, because they don't understand the context in which I'm trying to convey, so I have to be more specific, especially now in this field. So it felt like a long time to drunk me, but realistically, it was, like, minutes.

477 Later, Mr Whybrow put to Ms Higgins that she had previously said to Ms Wilkinson that (T961.21):

I remember he was, sort of, taking a really long time with something. I don't know, it felt like he was taking a really long time. And I was sitting on the ledge of the office, sort of, windows that overlook the Prime Minister's courtyard, and was feeling – I was feeling very out of it and so I got to the point where – I don’t know if he guided me there or if I went by myself – went the myself – but I ended up lying down and passing out on the Minister's couch.

?---Yes. And I'm saying that on the basis that I woke up on the couch with your client raping me - - -

Yes, you've said - - -?--- - - - so I was on the couch.

478 In any event, for reasons that were unclear in her inebriated state, she was apparently alone for some period (being variously a really long time, or a long time, or five minutes and it just "felt" long, or it was a minute) and she did not understand where Mr Lehrmann had gone and why she was still at Parliament and wanted to go home.

479 She also said she was looking for Mr Lehrmann and was not able to see him (T628.1–5) and because he was not within eyeshot (and therefore not at his desk), she speculated he was either in the kitchen or the DLO area (T627.5–9; T954.18–45). She denied that she sat at the ledge in the Minister's office (T956.4–5).

480 In her account in chief before me, her memory is then blank. She had said to Ms Wilkinson (T961.21) that she "was feeling very out of it and so I got to the point where… I ended up lying down and passing out on the Minister's couch". She had also said to Ms Maiden (Ex 50 (at 6–7)) that she was sitting on one of "these little window ledges that face into the Prime Minister's Courtyard" and then had the following exchange (Ex 50 (at 7)):

Ms Maiden:

And what was he doing?

Ms Higgins:

I don't know, a really...

Ms Maiden:

Yeah, you don't remember, no.

Ms Higgins:

Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369