Biggest bombshells in Brittany Higgins’ defamation trial

When the Canberra bubble explodes, the mud sticks and there is little place to hide.

Private text messages and emails between federal ministers, senators, staffers, press gallery journalists and lawyers were all made public during a five-week blockbuster defamation trial between Senator Linda Reynolds and her former staffer Brittany Higgins.

The high-stakes legal battle ended on Wednesday after three days of closing statements, with Ms Higgins’ defence team calling for the action to be dismissed entirely.

The trial has exceeded a million dollars in legal fees and could end up costing both parties their homes, all in the pursuit of truth.

Senator Linda Reynolds mortgaged her home in a bid to clear her name from allegations of misconduct levelled by Ms Higgins over the senator’s response to her former staffer’s alleged rape in Parliament House in 2019.

Ms Higgins has been forced to put her chateau in France up for sale to pay for her legal fees, as she continues to maintain her version of events as to what happened to her at Parliament House.

In the final moments of the trial, it was revealed Senator Reynolds was seeking more than half a million dollars in damages.

In addition to the large sum, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett called on the court to restrain Ms Higgins from denigrating his client any further in the future.

He asked the court to “nail the lies” Ms Higgins allegedly perpetuated since making her rape allegation public in 2021, saying she had “grossly defamed” his client in social media posts shared years later.

Ms Higgins’ defence lawyer Rachael Young put to the court it was a series of events in 2021 that led to Senator Reynolds distress and reputational damage, not social media posts created by her client two years later.

Ms Young told the court the senator’s decline was caused by backlash from her referring to Ms Higgins as a “lying cow”, the senate grilling over the allegations, her hospitalisation, losing the defence ministry and missing out on a shadow ministry.

Ms Young said Senator Reynolds had tried to besmirch the people she blamed for her political demise, namely Ms Higgins, who Ms Young said would continue to face the heaviest burden in all this.

Senator Reynolds launched legal action against Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over a series of social media posts the pair made in 2022 and 2023.

The posts were critical of Senator Reynolds’ handling of Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped in the senator’s office at Parliament House in 2019 by her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann.

He was charged with rape and faced trial in 2022, but the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.

The charge was dropped and Mr Lehrmann continues to maintain his innocence.

Mr Lehrmann lost a subsequent civil defamation case in April this year when the Federal Court determined, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House. He is appealing the decision.

POLITICAL PLAYERS IN LONG-RUNNING FEUD

Two dozen witnesses were called to give evidence including former prime minister Scott Morrison, former foreign affairs minister Marise Payne and gold Walkley Award-winning news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden.

Senator Reynolds sat in the witness stand over five days, teary at times as she relived the torrent of abuse and health issues she suffered after Ms Higgins spoke publicly about her rape allegation.

The senator’s partner Robert Reid, family members, Liberal Party colleagues, doctors and friends also took the witness stand, giving their accounts of the senator’s distress.

A who’s who of the nation’s parliament, media and legal circles were dragged into the proceedings as diary entries, minutes and communications between senators, staffers, journalists, police officers and lawyers were exposed in court.

Sky News anchor Peta Credlin, high-profile journalist Lisa Wilkinson, senators Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and the late Kimberley Kitching were all names thrown into the ring for playing their part in the long-running feud between the former defence minister and her junior staffer.

The court was told of Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz’s dinner and drinks with Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull, Senator Reynolds’ leaking of confidential information to The Australian reporter Janet Albrechtsen and allegations attorney general Mark Dreyfus had “stitched up” the senator when determining Ms Higgins’ Commonwealth settlement.

Advocate Grace Tame, television producer Angus Llewellyn and veteran journalists Laura Tingle and Liam Bartlett were all mentioned during the proceedings.

REYNOLDS “A VILLIAN IN THEIR FAIRYTALE”

The trial centred around what happened in the aftermath of Ms Higgins speaking out about her alleged rape.

The Maiden article, as it was referred to, and The Project interview that were published on February 15, 2021, two years after the alleged rape, led to a whirlwind of events.

It has seen the senator settle a number of other defamation cases and Ms Higgins settle a personal injury claim with her former employer, the Commonwealth Government, in which she received $2.4m in compensation.

When Ms Higgins spoke out, her story led to reforms in law that made Australian workplaces safer to prevent sexual violence and harassment at work.

However, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett argued in court statements Ms Higgins made in those media interviews and in her personal injury claim were wrong and that she had lied.

He said his client had been cast as a villain in Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz’s fictional story that alleged Senator Reynolds had tried to cover-up a rape.

“Every fairytale needs a villain, and in 2020 or 2021, Ms Higgins and her then-partner and now husband, Mr Sharaz, cast Senator Reynolds in that role for their fictional story of a cover-up of the rape,” Mr Bennett told the WA Supreme Court.

“The fact she had been raped was traumatic and terrible but it needed something more to attract the attention, to attract media interest, to attract the promotion of Ms Higgins, so she made it a political sex scandal.

“That’s the fiction that needed a villain and she cast Linda Reynolds in that role.”

Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young argued the matter is not, and never has been, a “fairytale”.

“For the Senator through her oral and written opening to suggest it may be (a fairytale) is misplaced, harassing and retraumatising,” she said.

Ms Young told the court her client found the courage to speak out about what happened to her and workplace culture at Parliament House, and how she chose to use her agency was her choice.

Ms Young said the “damage” to Senator Reynolds from events in 2021 had nothing to do with Ms Higgins’ social media post two years later.

“It’s a bold allegation … two young adults in their 20s plan to bring down the Liberal government,” she said.

Ms Young told the court Senator Reynolds had picked the “wrong target” for the hurt and distress and that her reputation was already “baked in” when her client posted to social media in the years that followed.

FORMER PM FEARED REYNOLDS COULD DIE

The court was told by multiple witnesses during the trial there were concerns Senator Reynolds could have died after she collapsed at Parliament House and was hospitalised.

In 2021, Senator Reynolds faced intense questioning from Labor senators in parliament after Ms Higgins’ allegations were made public.

It resulted in the senator collapsing and seeking medical treatment at a Canberra hospital.

Scott Morrison, who was Prime Minister at the time, told the WA Supreme Court he was fearful the outcome would be fatal for Senator Reynolds.

“She was quite visibly stressed and in a highly fragile emotional state, when I went to see her I was unaware of her cardiac condition,” Mr Morrison told the court.

“It was brought to my attention with her permission sometime later, we were very fearful this could be a fatal outcome for her.

“She took sick leave, as she should, she was not capable of continuing her duties in her physical and mental state.”

Senator Reynolds’ partner Robert Reid broke down in court recalling how a cardiologist told him “we might lose her” and her condition was “very serious.”

Senator Reynolds was discharged from hospital that night, determined to give a National Press Club address about defence matters the following day, but cancelled it on the day of the address due to ill health.

REYNOLDS: SENATOR KITCHING BULLIED TO DEATH

Senator Reynolds broke down in tears of guilt over a colleague’s death, saying that the late senator Kimberley Kitching had been bullied to death in the aftermath of Ms Higgins’ allegation.

Senator Reynolds recalled to the court how her senate colleague had warned her that Labor senators were planning to “weaponise” Ms Higgins allegations and “rain hell” on her and the government.

Senator Reynolds said she approached senators Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher in parliament and told them Senator Kitching had warned her about a looming attack.

“I believe what I said to them caused them to bully her to death,” Senator Reynolds told the court.

“If I hadn’t revealed her confidence to me to Senator Wong and Senator Gallagher, that’s when (Kitching) got angry with me and furious with me.

“That’s what led to her being ostracised by Labor. It’s my guilt, Ms Young, I should never have said that.

“She was so angry with me and she was losing weight, she was getting angrier.

“I might not be a doctor, Ms Young, but I carry the guilt of that, of telling the senators which led to that.”

The late Senator Kitching died in March 2022 from a suspected heart attack aged 52.

THE CARLA ZAMPATTI JACKET

Senator Reynolds claimed during the trial that Ms Higgins stole her designer Carla Zampatti jacket on the morning after the alleged rape.

Ms Higgins could be seen wearing the jacket when she left Parliament House in CCTV footage, but never returned it to her former boss.

Under cross-examination, Ms Young asked Senator Reynolds if she thought that Ms Higgins had taken the jacket to cover herself up after the sexual assault.

“When she had taken your jacket … stolen your jacket, to use your word … did you think she was trying to cover herself up?” she asked.

Senator Reynolds said she would not have minded if Ms Higgins took the jacket and had explained the situation later, but said she never did.

The former defence minister also told the court she felt annoyed that Ms Higgins dressed like Kate Middleton during the Lehrmann trial.

Text messages submitted to the court showed Senator Reynolds mocking Ms Higgins for dressing like Kate Middleton to Mr Lerhmann’s lawyer Steve Whybrow.

Senator Reynolds said Ms Higgins had a penchant for designer clothing.

“Ms Higgins had a predilection for expensive clothes, including my jacket,“ the senator told the court.

Admitting she was probably being a “little catty and over sensitive about her imitating Kate Middleton.”

She told the court Ms Higgins had previously made a point of wearing white to various events.

“It annoyed me because it was the connection with my coat and the image of her coming – she can wear whatever she likes – but what annoyed me was that I perceived her as imitating Kate Middleton,” she said

“It doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but it did annoy me.

“I was upset about my jacket being stolen and I was sensitive to her outfits.“

VERDICT

The final chapter in the defamation battle is yet to be determined, and Justice Paul Tottle could take months to deliberate before he hands down his verdict in the matter.

Justice Tottle has been tasked with deciding whether social media posts published by Ms Higgins in 2022 and 2023 defamed Senator Reynolds.

He has also been asked to find if Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz engaged in an orchestrated plan to attack the senator.