Linda Reynolds’ engaged in a “campaign of harassment” against her former staffer, Brittany Higgins, and had a “dogged focus” on the “wrong target”, a court has heard.
And Reynolds failed to offer a “basic human response” by following up with Higgins about her welfare after a meeting they had about her rape allegation, Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young SC, said.
Young began her closing arguments on Monday in the defamation case brought by the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds against Higgins.
Reynolds sued Higgins over a series of social media posts published in July 2023, which the Liberal senator alleged had damaged her reputation. But Higgins has claimed a defence of truth, saying Reynolds mishandled her rape allegation – which was made public in 2021 – and did not properly support her.
On Monday, Young told the Western Australia supreme court that Reynolds’ “dogged focus” on events in 2021 and 2022 demonstrated her focus was not on the three social media posts in 2023 that she is suing for damages over.
Higgins ultimately had an “altruistic purpose” in coming forward about her alleged rape and felt her “continued silence” would make her complicit in continuing the poor workplace behaviour in Parliament House, Young said.
Young said the Liberal senator had tried to characterise Higgins’ motives as “sinister” and “gratuitous”, and said that while Reynolds had outlined the hurt and distress she experienced by the events in 2021, it was Higgins who held the “heaviest burden”.
Witness evidence over the weeks has dealt with the alleged harm Reynolds faced by the posts but has also spanned other events across the five-year period after Higgins alleged she had been raped by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the then defence minister’s office in Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann denies raping Higgins and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct. As part of Lehrmann’s failed defamation trial against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, a federal court in April found that, on the balance of probabilities, he raped Higgins. Lehrmann has appealed against that finding.
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On Monday, Young also told the court Reynolds was an “unreliable witness”. She said Reynolds was “eager to argue her case” rather than answer simple questions. Young characterised some of Reynolds’ responses as “self-serving”, adding she could not answer simple questions without having them repeated to her numerous times.
Young said that the alleged conspiracy by Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, to “destroy the senator and bring down the Morrison government” could not be proven.
Young said the evidence instead showed Reynolds harassed Higgins by leaking confidential documents to The Australian newspaper and gave the impression of partisanship during the criminal trial against Lehrmann.
Reynolds also demonstrated she wanted to “shut off” the option for sexual assault complainants to go to the media or parliament, Young said, as outlined in her submission to the 2023 ACT board of inquiry, helmed by Walter Sofronoff.
Young said this amounted to trying to “silence sexual assault survivors”, indicating Higgins’ social media post in July 2023 which made that allegation was fair comment.
Young also outlined eight pieces of evidence that she said would demonstrate Reynolds knew Higgins had allegedly been raped in her office prior to holding a meeting with her there on 1 April.
The pieces of evidence included that Reynolds gave instructions to her then chief of staff, Fiona Brown, to refer the case to the Australian federal police.
No one “reasonable” involves the federal police unless they suspect a crime has occurred, Young argued.
Young said Reynolds’ claims she did not know about Higgins’ alleged rape prior to 1 April 2019 should be rejected.
Young outlined the ways the defence argues Reynolds “mishandled” Higgins’ rape allegation, saying that in the 1 April meeting, Higgins was concerned about losing her job and became upset after the upcoming federal election was raised.
Young said Higgins had to choose between going to Perth to help with the Liberal party’s campaign or working from home in the Gold Coast to be with family and her support network.
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Young also pointed to a series of text messages she said showed Higgins was struggling during her time in Perth on the campaign.
In one message, Higgins wrote she was “beyond shitty” with how her boss, Reynolds, was dealing with the alleged sexual assault, adding: “I was literally assaulted in [Reynolds’] office and I collectively maybe took 4 days off/was offered jack shit in terms of help.”
Young added Reynolds failed to offer a “basic human response” by following up with Higgins about her welfare following the 1 April meeting and while she was campaigning in Perth.
In the defamation trial, the court has heard from politicians, journalists, staffers and family and friends of Higgins and Reynolds.
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Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, opened the trial by saying that “every fairytale needs a villain” and claiming that Higgins and Sharaz had cast the Liberal senator in that role.
Bennett also alleged the two had schemed to ambush the Western Australian senator as part of a sophisticated media plan.
He said Higgins had created a “fictional story of political cover-up”, detailing ill-treatment, ostracisation and bullying by Reynolds, but “none of it was true”.
But Young responded in opening arguments that the series of events had “never been a fairytale” for Higgins, and that those comments were “misplaced, harassing and re-traumatising”.
Young told the court the defence case would demonstrate that Reynolds was aware of Higgins’ alleged rape before 1 April 2019, when Higgins and Reynolds held their only meeting on the matter – a claim Reynolds has strongly denied.
The trial, before Justice Paul Tottle, is expected to conclude by Wednesday.
– With Australian Associated Press
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Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html