Brittany Higgins is asked WHY she wore the white dress she was allegedly raped in again as she opens up about sending selfies to her ex-boyfriend while wearing it
Brittany Higgins wore a white Kookai cocktail-style dress on March 22, 2019 – the night she alleges Bruce Lehrmann raped her (pictured below).
Ms Higgins admitted she told police on February 6, 2021, and the ACT Supreme Court during Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial last year that she put the dress in a bag under her bed and left it there for six months.
During the criminal trial, it was revealed that the dress wasn’t under her bed for six months because she had worn it to a work function in May of that year.
In the Federal Court on Friday, Ms Higgins admitted the dress was actually under her bed for about five days before she took it out, washed it, and packed it for a six-week work trip to Perth.
Mr Lehrmann’s barrister Steven Whybrow SC asked why she wore it again.
Ms Higgins told the court it was her favourite dress and she tried to ‘reclaim’ it.
‘Sometimes you can shake off the association with and make it yours again, but I couldn’t.
‘It was my favourite dress and I thought I could disassociate it from the rape, but I couldn’t.’
Mr Whybrow then showed her selfies she took in a bathroom at Linda Reynolds’ birthday in Perth (pictured avove), which she then sent to her ex-boyfriend Ben Dillaway.
‘I took the photos of myself in the bathroom because I felt awkward that night.
‘We were rekindling things – I was trying to be flirty, I guess.’
Mr Whybrow said she sent ‘thousands’ of messages to Mr Dillaway, but never told him it was the dress she was allegedly assaulted in.
Ms Higgins told the court she would send Mr Dillaway ‘sexts’, but she never spoke to him about reclaiming the white dress.
Mr Whybrow suggested to her that she sent the photos to Mr Dillaway because she hadn’t been sexually assaulted in the dress.
‘I understand that is what you’re suggesting to me, and you are incorrect,’ she replied.
‘You were exchanging personal, intimate details to each other … you said you were working on your selfie game, and he was telling you how attractive you were looking,’ Mr Whybrow said.
