Daily Times

A government staffer described herself “as drunk as she’d ever been in her life” on the night she alleges she was raped inside the Australian Parliament House, a prosecutor told a jury on Tuesday.

In his opening address, prosecutor Shane Drumgold told the jury the level of Brittany Higgins’ intoxication was important because it was relevant to her ability to consent to being involved into sexual intercourse.

Fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann, 27, has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and faces a potential maximum sentence of 12 years in prison if convicted .

His trial began in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court on Tuesday in the national capital, Canberra, overseen by Chief Justice Lucy McCallum.

Drumgold outlined the prosecution’s version of events and the evidence the jury will hear throughout the case which is expected to run for up to six weeks and hear evidence from three former ministers.

He said on Friday, March 22, 2019, Lehrmann and Higgins, then 24, had been out drinking with colleagues at a Canberra bar, then a nightclub before leaving in a taxi together in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Higgins thought she was on her way home but Lehrmann said he needed to stop by Parliament House to collect some work, Drumgold said.