Brittany Higgins has insisted a Carla Zampatti jacket she was seen wearing in Parliament House after her alleged rape was to be donated to charity and was not owned by her then boss Senator Linda Reynolds.

Higgins returned to a Federal Court witness box on Tuesday for an emotional, tearful and sometimes angry third day of questioning in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial.

Lehrmann’s barrister Steven Whybrow SC suggested the jacket had been hanging in Reynolds’ office where the alleged sexual assault took place.

Higgins denied she had lied by saying she retrieved the item from a box of old clothing meant for charity and eventually took the box and the jacket to a charity bin.

“It would be in the footage out there,” she told Justice Michael Lee.

“If someone at Parliament House could clear up the fact I’m not a thief, that would be awesome.”

Higgins said she took the jacket because she wanted to cover up her body after the alleged rape.

Lehrmann claims a February 2021 report by The Project on Ms Higgins’ allegation of sexual assault destroyed his reputation, despite him not being named as the accused at the time.

Lehrmann has vehemently denied Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped by him in the early hours of March 23, 2019, in Reynolds’ Parliament House office.

In one message sent to ex-boyfriend and friend Ben Dillaway hours after the alleged rape, Higgins wrote, “I need to slow down a bit. It’s probably gotten a little out of hand recently haha”.

She told the court that while she wasn’t able to directly speak about the alleged rape at the time, the message was her beginning to open up to Dillaway.

“When someone rapes me, that means I probably need to pull back,” she told the court.

Earlier on Tuesday, Higgins rejected Whybrow’s suggestions she had deliberately erased texts from about the time of the alleged rape.

She admitted deleting a photograph of her in a Make America Great Again hat before handing her phone to police during their investigation.

“It was something I was really ashamed of and I deleted it,” she said.

Whybrow claimed Higgins had done more than erase a photo, pointing to other messages later found to be missing.

Higgins denied deleting these intentionally because they would have contradicted her claims she was sexually assaulted.

The messages had been lost when she changed devices over the years, moved to a different iCloud account, or had been accidentally deleted, the court heard.

Lehrmann was charged in August 2021 over the alleged rape. His criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court was derailed by juror misconduct.

Prosecutors did not seek a second trial, citing concerns for Higgins’ mental health.

Lehrmann is also before Queensland courts accused of raping another woman twice in Toowoomba in October 2021.

He has not yet entered a plea, but his lawyers have indicated he denies the charges.

1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

– AAP