Brittany Higgins has been unavailable to give evidence in the trial of her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann.

Lehrmann is on trial for the alleged rape of Ms Higgins inside Parliament House in March 2019.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies any sexual activity took place.

Chief Justice Lucy McCallum told the jury on Monday that Ms Higgins was unavailable.

She said the trial would resume, but the prosecution needed time to gather other witnesses.

Monday was the fifth day of the trial, which has entered its second week. It is expected to last for at least four weeks.

Lehrmann’s lawyers began cross-examining Ms Higgins last week and were expected to continue on Monday.

During a heated exchange on Friday, Mr Whybrow put to Ms Higgins she pretended to have a doctor’s appointments in the week after the alleged assault to “bolster” her story.

Ms Higgins earlier told the court she made multiple doctor’s appointments with the intention of going but could not bring herself to attend them.

Mr Whybrow asked Ms Higgins if she didn’t go to the doctor because she hadn’t had sex with anybody on the night she alleges she was raped.

“Nothing you are saying right now is true whatsoever and it’s deeply insulting,” Ms Higgins said.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever gone through a trauma before but confronting it head on with professionals is a really difficult thing to do.”

When she returns to the witness box, Ms Higgins is also expected to be questioned about her claim she was unable to organise a psychiatrist appointment after the alleged rape because there was a two-month wait.

Ms Higgins said she had been about to leave for Perth to work on the election campaign, and a psychiatrist appointment in Canberra “would not have been feasible”.

Ms Higgins was also questioned about her delay in providing the police with her phone when she reopened the complaint against Lehrmann in 2021.

She admitted deleting some text messages as well as photos of herself with Liberal ministers, but denied trying to withhold evidence from police.

“It wasn’t with the intent of keeping things from police but it was kind of purging things from my life,” she said.

“I didn’t want to look at politicians in my camera roll anymore. I just wanted them gone.”

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