Linda Reynolds’ high-profile defamation battle with Brittany Higgins is set to resume as lawyers prepare to wrap their cases.
Higgins is being sued by the senator over a series of social media posts that she believes damaged her reputation.
More than 20 witnesses including former prime minister Scott Morrison have given evidence in the Western Australia Supreme Court trial.
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The senator alleges Higgins and her now-husband David Sharaz cast her as the “villain” in their “political cover-up fairy tale” that included accusations of ill-treatment, ostracism, bullying, harassment and threatening conduct.
Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young told the trial her client was courageous in 2021 when she spoke up about her alleged rape and workplace culture two years earlier at Parliament House.
She ridiculed the claim Higgins was targeting the senator in a bid to harm her when she spoke to journalists Lisa Wilkinson on Network Ten’s The Project and Samantha Maiden from News Corp about the alleged mishandling of the incident.
Morrison told the court he feared Reynolds would die amid the political firestorm that followed.
“It was the weaponising of this issue for political purposes to discredit both Senator Reynolds … and the government and, by extension, myself,” he said.
Reynolds’ parents, Janice and Laith Reynolds, said their daughter was “badly affected by going from a person who was universally loved and respected to becoming a pariah”.
“She was accused of being some kind of monster who deserted a poor young woman who had been raped,” Reynolds said in a witness statement.
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Senator Reynolds claims her suffering has been compounded by Higgins’ social media posts which she says carry imputations that she harassed her former staffer, mishandled her alleged rape, wants to silence sexual assault victims and engaged in questionable conduct during Lehrmann’s aborted criminal trial.
Higgins relies on the defence of truth to justify her harassment claim, with Young reminding the court of the senator’s “disgraceful slur” when she called the former staffer a “lying cow” in front of parliamentary staff.
She also pointed to Reynolds’ conduct during Lehrmann’s trial and said she backgrounded media about Higgins.
The same defence is being employed for Higgins’ rape mishandling accusation, with Young telling the court the senator withheld information from the former staffer but shared it with others, and provided inadequate counselling and work options.
The defence also relies on qualified privilege, fair comment and honest opinion and says Higgins was reacting to and speaking about issues of public interest.
Higgins, who is pregnant, was expected to testify but late in the trial, Young told the court she could win the case without doing so, while also raising concerns about her client’s medical condition.
The trial continues today, with closing submissions set down for three days.
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