422 Mr Lehrmann asks me to accept the proposition that it was "a process to get in" to his shared flat (T306.10) and that to avoid this complication, he preferred to: (a) go out of his way to go back to work in the early hours; (b) lie to Parliament House security; (c) sign the necessary register; (d) be issued with a pass; (e) go through a metal detector; (f) be escorted by a security guard to his office; (g) obtain his keys from his office; (h) book another Uber; (i) go back through a Parliamentary exit; (j) meet the rideshare car; and then (k) ride home. Even if he was in the doghouse because he had stayed out late, I think it is safe to conclude that the process of getting into a flat he shared with his girlfriend would have been a significantly less elaborate exercise.
423 Moreover, the incoherence of this evidence is also shown by the fact that if he really needed to collect his keys from Parliament House, he could have just said so, and the sensible security guards who gave evidence before me would, no doubt, have assisted him to get them.
424 Ms Higgins' evidence was that she thought she was going home. She said that at some point during the ride, Mr Lehrmann said something to the effect: "I have to just pick something up from work" (T621.46). This account has a kernel of truth in that it explains why she agreed to leave with Mr Lehrmann (or even explains why she got into the Uber with Mr Lehrmann), but otherwise does not withstand analysis.
425 Like with so much fact-finding in litigation, the key to unlocking what most likely happened is found in examining the most contemporaneous accounts; in this case, what they both initially and spontaneously said as to why they ended up in an Uber and going back to Parliament House. As we will see, as for Mr Lehrmann, this comes from his conversation with Ms Brown in their second meeting on 26 March 2019 where he told her that he "came back to drink some whisky or something like that" (T153.45–47). Notably, and as I have already explained, at this meeting, after Mr Lehrmann said he "chatted" with Ms Higgins, when pressed by Ms Brown's question "what else did you do whilst in the office?", Mr Lehrmann revealingly said he "didn't wish to get into that" (T2052.4–5).
426 As for Ms Higgins, as I have referred to in dealing with the credit of Major Irvine, on the Wednesday or Thursday after the incident, Ms Higgins said to her (T1180.41–45): "Bruce and I were in a[n] Uber to go home and he wanted to come back to Parliament House. He had some whisky to show me or something" (see also Irvine (at [60])). This is also consistent with
