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 Ms Higgins:

So we went into the staff meeting room and it was this lady named Christy Pearson. She was working in Linda Reynolds’ office during MinDef when she was Minister of Defence but has left since. And she pretty much ...

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Ms Higgins:

Yeah, so she came and said, you know, an inquiry's come in, I know this is going to be really distressing for you but … And it was pretty much, she told me what had happened and then the question kind of turned to, have you spoken to anyone. And it kind of felt really quickly...

Ms Maiden:

Oh, like ...

Ms Higgins:

Yeah, like they thought that it was me.

Ms Maiden:

Yeah.

Ms Higgins:

But I was pretty distraught because it was like a long repressed trauma at that point.

Ms Maiden:

Did you cry in that meeting?

Ms Higgins:

Yeah, I was hysterical.

Ms Maiden:

Yeah, and what did you say?

Ms Higgins:

I obviously said that it wasn't me, that I was just... I think I had a panic attack kind of. I think it was really ...

Ms Maiden:

How did that manifest itself? What were you?

Ms Higgins:

I don't know, it was just the prospect that I had not pursued it, that I had buried it, that I had pretty much internalised it and then that all of a sudden it was being leaked anyway, it was already going to come out and it was going to be like ...

Ms Maiden:

Become a thing once again that would embarrass the party.

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