One witness who knows exactly what happened in the Senator’s office that fateful night.
The Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins case was never about establishing whether or not Lehrmann raped Higgins. It was about Brittany. She was established as not ‘the perfect victim’ so we overlooked the blazingly obvious fact that Bruce Lehrmann was ‘the perfect perpetrator’. An entitled, compulsive wrecking ball of cocaine, $400 steaks, free rent and very very expensive massages.
This conversation has rarely been about rape. It’s been about defamation. Ruined reputations. Hurt feelings? Um, can we get back to the fact a girl was raped? It’s been painful to bear witness to the failure of parliament to provide a safe workplace. The failure of the courts to provide a safe trial. And the failure of our justice system to deliver real justice. Why do we keep minimising and disappearing this rape? When it comes to rape, the system has ADD.
Justice Lee pronounced the rape proven, allegations of a coverup not proven. So it’s very possible it’s still not over for Brittany. Senator Reynolds is clear that she will proceed with a defamation trial unless Higgins concedes to Lee’s ruling that there was no cover-up. Must a woman who was raped, be made do this again? Although…
There is one witness that hasn’t been called.
One witness that saw everything but has been kept quiet.
One witness who knows exactly what happened in the Senator’s office that fateful night.
The couch.
The couch that was steam-cleaned hours after, in line with Lee’s judgement, Lehrmann raped Higgins. Of course, at the time of the couch cleaning, no such incident had been reported. The cleaning was random?
I’ve got couches. I’ve NEVER had them steam-cleaned – ever. Steam-cleaning couches would appear to me, as extraordinary as being raped on a Senator’s couch. The fact that two events happened so closely together can only tell me one thing – the couch knew something.
What we know, from evidence, is that a security guard saw Brittany naked and rolled in a foetal position on the aforementioned couch. This same security guard had escorted Ms Higgins and Lehrmann to the Senator’s office at 1.30am. She conducted a welfare check at 4.30am after Ms Higgins failed to come out of the suite. Brittany’s dress and shoes were on the floor. And Brittany was asleep, naked in the foetal position facing the minister’s desk.
Not long after this, the Senator’s couch and office was steam-cleaned. A clean ordered by the Department of Finance as an ‘additional clean’. It’s never properly been established why. No one has really properly answered this. We’ve been too busy putting the rape victim on trial to find out about why the couch was cleaned. And who requested it? I don’t know, but it feels important.
During this trial I have missed the political smarts of Mungo MacCallum. I would have appreciated his insights. This week is Mungo’s last crossword. The final hurrah of a great journo and wordsmith.
2 Down. 5 letters. To put an idea forward, in a specific style. Upholstered but not yet upended. COUCH!
Gendered violence is on the increase.
Join me to SAY NO to domestic violence in a candlelit vigil to honour the women and children on Wednesday, 1 May at Northern Rivers Conservatorium from 5.30pm to 6.30pm. Bring a candle and a flower.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
