The court testimony of a Colombian-born cleaner who was tasked with tidying Linda Reynolds’ parliamentary office in the hours after Brittany Higgins alleges she was raped has poured water on the ongoing rumor of an alleged “steam cleaning.”
Carlos Ramos was asked to clean Senator Reynolds’ office on March 23, 2019, after parliamentary security staff officers alerted a Treasury Department official that two staffers had entered the office and that Ms. Higgins had been sleeping on the couch.
Ms. Higgins did not publicly disclose allegations of an attack until much later, and investigations by former Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Vivienne Thom and the Federal Police showed that there was no reason to suspect one at the time.
However, late night drinks in parliamentary offices are not uncommon in Canberra and special cleans are sometimes ordered to ensure MPs do not get to the remains of a party.
When Mr. Ramos arrived to complete the cleaning, expecting a job of two hours or more, he thought the room was so tidy that he called his boss, who then contacted security personnel to make sure they had the right room. had.
Brittany Higgins (pictured) claimed she was raped in 2019 in the office of then Defense Secretary Linda Reynolds at Parliament House
A court heard it was not unusual for the minister’s offices to be cleaned if staffers had been drinking the night before so they wouldn’t end up in a mess (pictured, Senator Linda Reynolds)
“This look, in my opinion, is normal cleaning,” Ramos, whose native language is Spanish, told the ACT Supreme Court that he told his supervisor.
Ramos testified on October 11 last year that he spent 30 minutes routinely cleaning the already clean room, a fact noted by columnist Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian had been overlooked by the media.
His testimony was lost among the many documents that eventually became available when a suppression order was lifted.
The warrant was in place until Ms. Higgins completed her cross-examination, which was interrupted by mental health breaks.
Asked by District Attorney Shane Drumgold if he had cleaned the couch where Higgins claims she was raped, Ramos said he wiped it down with a leather cleaning product.
“You put a chemical on a cloth and you wiped it (the sofa)?” asked Drumgold.
Ramos: “Yes, yes.”
During cross-examination, Ramos told attorney Katrina Musgrove that, “It was all just routine cleaning.”
His testimony refutes the claim that the couch in Ms. Reynolds’ office had been thoroughly steamed in the hours following the alleged assault.
The Parliament House cleaner said he had wiped the sofa with leather cleaner and a cloth, but it had not been steam-cleaned (pictured is Mrs Reynolds’s then-office at Parliament House)
The steam cleaning claim suggesting that the scene may have been “hampered” appeared in Article that broke the story and has been repeated countless times.
Ms Albrechtsen noted that the claim appeared to stem from a diary entry by Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner for National Security, Leanne Close, about a conversation she had with AFP Assistant Commissioner Lesa Gale.
The note said that Gale had told her that “the office staff has had the lounge steam cleaned.”
The claim was repeated months later in an anonymous letter addressed to the late Senator Kimberling Kitching.
During his cross-examination, Mr. Ramos was also asked if he should clean the bathroom where Ms. Higgins said she had vomited.
“Not really… like the bathroom hasn’t been used lately.”
He said there didn’t seem to be any towels, the toilet wasn’t dirty and there were no smells.
“The toilet seat underneath didn’t need to be cleaned?” Musgrove asked.
“No,” he replied.
Ms Higgins can be seen on CCTV walking past parliament security on the night she claims to have been raped in Ms Reynolds’ parliamentary office
The ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, who handled the Higgins case, is on leave until August 30.
Anthony Williamson SC plays the part.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr awaits a report due this month following an independent inquiry into how the justice system handled Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
Mr. Lehrmann was the staffer accused of raping Mrs. Higgins in Mrs. Reynolds’ office. He has consistently denied the allegations.
The independent inquiry was led by former Queensland Supreme Court Justice Walter Sofronoff.
Prosecutors dropped charges against Mr. Lehrmann over concerns about the impact of a second trial on Ms. Higgins’ mental health after the first trial was cut short due to juror misconduct.