Ex-Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has admitted giving a false account to police about why he and Brittany Higgins returned to Parliament House on the night she was allegedly raped.

Higgins claims Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in the office of their then-boss, former defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, in the early hours of Saturday, March 23, 2019.

Three days later, in a meeting with Senator Reynolds’ then chief-of-staff Fiona Brown over a “security incident” on the weekend, Lehrmann said he returned to the office to have two glasses of whisky.

During an April 2021 interview with the Australian Federal Police, he denied that drinking whisky was the excuse he gave to Brown about why he was back at Parliament House after hours.

“Those answers to the Australian Federal Police were false?” said barrister Matthew Collins KC in the Federal Court on Friday.

“Yes,” Lehrmann said.

“And you knew them to be false?” Collins said.

“Not at the time,” Lehrmann said.

The law student and former tobacco lobbyist is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over a February 2021 report on The Project where Higgins was interviewed about the alleged sexual assault.

On Wednesday, Lehrmann claimed he went back to Parliament House to fetch his keys and to do work on some Question Time folders, denying that anything happened between himself and Higgins.

He said he forgot his Parliament House pass and had to lie to security to get inside.

Representing Ten on Friday, Collins asked why Lehrmann had left for dinner and drinks that night without taking either his keys or his pass.

Lehrmann said he “just left” his pass on his desk and rejected the barrister’s claims he would have taken his keys if he intended to go home.

The law student has settled two other defamation proceedings he brought against News.com.au and the ABC over separate reports about Higgins’ allegations.

The criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court over Higgins’ rape allegations was derailed by juror misconduct and prosecutors did not seek a second trial because of concerns over her mental health.

A landmark report into the ACT legal system and the Higgins case was released in August, making damning findings against now ex-director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold over his conduct during the case.

Lehrmann has separately been accused of raping another woman twice in Toowoomba in October 2021.

That criminal case is still in the committal stage and he is yet to enter a plea, but his lawyers have indicated that he denies the charges.

– AAP