Page:Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment).pdf/157

 have found took place. Further, and critically, upon a review of the whole of my findings on the evidence, even taking all these other possibilities of what might have occurred together, the sum of the likelihood they occurred is outweighed by the likelihood Ms Higgins was raped as she asserted in the critical part of her oral testimony.

609 Thirdly, there is the issue of Ms Higgins' motive to lie. During the hearing, those acting for Mr Lehrmann suggested that fabricating the rape allegation was conduct directed to saving Ms Higgins' job. More particularly, it was said that having been found passed out in the Minister's office would be highly damaging to her reputation and career prospects as an aspiring staffer or Member of Parliament and, as a consequence, she needed to construct a different narrative to rehabilitate her reputation. Ms Higgins did express some fear for the early termination of her job when the incident first became known. She had, after all, explained to the Project team in the initial interview (Ex 36 (at 0:46:59)) that: (a) she "immediately thought [she] was going to be sacked"; (b) that it "felt like [Ms Brown] was going to fire me" (Ex 36 (at 0:49:31)); and (c) agreed that she "thought I'm about to be fired" (Ex 36 (at 1:00:12–24)). To similar effect, at the criminal trial, she gave the following evidence (Ex 71 (at T269.19–25)) as to her state of mind when she was first called in to see Ms Brown:

MR WHYBROW: You had seen Mr Lehrmann effectively to your mind be sacked? – Yes

…

And you were called in to what you anticipated would be a meeting where you might also be terminated? – Yes.

610 Network Ten's response to the suggestion Ms Higgins had a motivation to lie is, among other things, to say: (a) this would mean her conduct, more than two years later, in quitting her job, publicising her false rape allegation, and reinstating a police investigation "would be utterly irrational"; and (b) Ms Brown acknowledged that Ms Higgins' job was never at risk (T2157.17–35).

611 As to (a), this seems to assume her motivations could not have changed in those two years and the correctness of the related proposition advanced by Network Ten (in the teeth of the 2021 representations of Ms Higgins to Ms Maiden and the Project team and her exchanges with Mr Sharaz) that Ms Higgins in 2021 still "loved the Liberal Party" (Ex 71 (at Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369