Higgins, Reynolds to face off at trial
Written by admin on August 2, 2024
Senator Linda Reynolds and her former staffer Brittany Higgins are set to face off as a blockbuster defamation trial gets underway in Perth later today.
After multiple failed mediation hearings, the pair will ask the Supreme Court of WA to decide whether a series of social media posts shared by Ms Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, were defamatory of the WA senator.
The couple shared posts in 2022 and 2023 which were critical of Ms Reynolds’ handling of Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped in Parliament House in 2019 by her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann.
Mr Lehrmann was charged and faced trial in 2022, but the trial was aborted over juror misconduct and the charge was dropped shortly after.
Mr Lehrmann had pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence.
Ms Reynolds has alleged in her statement of claim Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz’s posts suggested the senator had engaged in a “campaign” of harassing Ms Higgins, failed to support Ms Higgins after her rape allegation, wants to “silence victims of sexual assault” and engaged in questionable conduct during Mr Lehrmann’s trial.
Ms Reynolds further alleges the “intense questioning” she faced in the Senate in the wake of Ms Higgins’ rape allegation being aired on The Project exacerbated a previously undiagnosed cardiac condition.
The Senator said she was hospitalised in March 2021 as a result of “the stress caused by the Project broadcast and the aggressive questioning of her in the Senate which was a direct
consequence of the conduct of the defendant”.
In documents released by the Supreme Court, Ms Higgins revealed she will argue the social media posts were substantially true, and that she was sharing her opinion on “a matter of public interest”.
Ms Higgins claims in the documents that Senator Reynolds had shared “confidential correspondence” with media which included an internal government departmental email marked “sensitive: personal” relating to the multi million-dollar payout Ms Higgins received in compensation following the alleged rape.
Ms Higgins further claims the senator engaged in a “campaign of harassment” against her by providing the “confidential information to the media” regarding mediation and complaints to the Commonwealth, as well as “directly or indirectly” questioning her personal injury claim against the Commonwealth.
The trial begins at 10.30am local time on Wednesday, and is set down for five weeks.
Ms Higgins is expected to return to Australia from France to give evidence, and other high profile witnesses, including former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, are also expected to appear.
More to come.
Read related topics:Perth
