it didn't - I remember thinking it didn't make any sense at all what she was telling me because she said, "They were out, then they went back to a minister's office to have drinks." And having worked in that building for a long time, like I know you just - you can't just go have a party in a minister's office. Like when Parliament's sitting, yeah, you can get people into an office pretty easy. But when Parliament's not sitting, you can't just go from a nightclub, zoom by Parliament and bring everyone from the bar and have a party in the minister's office. And kind of when she said that to me initially, I remember thinking like -you know, WTF, I'm like that doesn't make any sense. "What do you mean youse [sic] went back to the minister's office and had drinks and partied there?" I'm like, "That doesn't make any sense." And I think as I stated to probe those questions, um, she tried to kind of shut it down. And, you know, she said, "Look, I don't want to talk about it."
537 This is not inconsistent with a victim of sexual assault still trying to process what happened, and being initially reticent in discussing the details with someone with whom they were close.
538 Secondly, and importantly, are the representations made by Ms Higgins in meetings with Ms Brown recorded in Annexure B. Those communications show a woman working through a traumatic event and providing further information notwithstanding she did not, at that time, feel able to say to Ms Brown in express words that she had been "raped" (which was a graphic word she initially had some – but not uniform – difficulty in applying to her experience). Hence, even when she first articulated to Ms Brown at the end of her third meeting on Thursday, 28 March, that she recalled Mr Lehrmann "being on top of me" (and which caused Ms Brown to be shocked) (T2129.1–27), she did not expressly say she had been raped. As noted above (at [272]), as she said to Ms Maiden (Ex 50 (at 12)) "I think for like the longest time I was really weird about actually saying it was rape". Given the agreed facts as to the effects of trauma, this is hardly surprising.
539 Thirdly, are the prompt communication of allegations with the AFP and the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team (SACAT) in 2019 and the subsequent counselling, which will be examined in further detail below, and which are consistent with a sexual assault having taken place (even though it would be unsafe to rely on a lack of complaint and counselling as counterintuitive behaviour, for reasons I have explained).
540 Fourthly, was Ms Higgins' message to Mr O'Connor (the Queensland MP and friend of Ms Higgins) on 29 March 2019, where she represented that a "super f****ed up thing happened little while ago" (T1920.44–1921.4) and a subsequent telephone conversation during which Mr O'Connor (T1921.37–40):
absolutely remember[ed] the word "rape" [being used]. That's not something that
