Nikola Anderson was working in parliament about 1.30am on March 23, 2019 when she escorted Ms Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann to the office of Senator Linda Reynolds.
Giving evidence in Lehrmann's defamation trial on Thursday, Ms Anderson said she conducted a "welfare check" about 4.30am after Ms Higgins failed to come out of the suite.
In an affidavit filed in the case, she said Ms Higgins was naked on the minister's couch and had opened her eyes to look at her.
Nikola Anderson (right) said Ms Higgins did not appear to be in distress when she checked her. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
"She rolled over into the fetal position and faced the desk, the minister's desk," she told the Federal Court.
Her dress and shoes were on the floor next to the lounge, her makeup appeared to be intact and Ms Higgins did not appear to be in any distress, Ms Anderson said.
Mark Fairweather, the other security guard who signed Lehrmann and Ms Higgins into Parliament House, said the pair did not seem to be heavily intoxicated going through the metal detectors.
"I would have refused entry if I believed they were heavily intoxicated," he told Justice Michael Lee.
Mr Fairweather said when Lehrmann left later on, he was walking hastily and was looking down at his phone.
The law student has had almost half a million dollars of legal bills covered under two settlements with News.com.au and the ABC over media reports airing Brittany Higgins' rape allegations.
The ABC has agreed to pay a total of $150,000 towards Lehrmann's legal costs and remove a Facebook video of a joint speech by Ms Higgins and 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame at the National Press Club in 2022.
The agreement also requires the ABC not to reinstate a YouTube video of the speech.
News.com.au has paid $295,000 to Lehrmann to cover his legal bills, with the publisher agreeing to insert an editor's note on articles published in February 2021 regarding the Higgins allegation.
"News.com.au notes that a criminal charge of sexual assault was brought against Mr Lehrmann and later dropped," the note reads.Â
"News.com.au does not suggest that Mr Lehrmann was guilty of that charge."
The ex-Liberal staffer is still suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson claiming he was defamed and his reputation destroyed by a February 2021 report on The Project.
Ms Wilkinson interviewed Ms Higgins about her allegation she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann in the Parliament House office of their then-boss, Senator Reynolds, in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
Lehrmann has denied this happened, claiming that no sexual contact or intimacy occurred between them.
Senator Reynolds' former aide de camp Nikita Irvine and Ms Higgins' friend Ben Dillaway, who she confided in about the alleged rape, are also due to give evidence at the trial on Thursday.
Lehrmann was charged in August 2021 over the alleged rape, but his criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court was derailed by juror misconduct.
Prosecutors did not seek a second trial, citing concerns for Ms 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
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