Lawyers' submissions in the defamation trial between Senator Linda Reynolds and her former staffer Brittany Higgins have come to an end in the Supreme Court of WA.
Lawyers' submissions in the defamation trial between Senator Linda Reynolds and her former staffer Brittany Higgins have come to an end in the Supreme Court of WA.
Legal counsel for the pair have been presenting before WA Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle over the past five weeks, with Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett delivering his closing submissions today.
Senator Reynolds has accused Ms Higgins of publishing social media posts that were defamatory of the WA politician’s character, amid the handling of the former Liberal staffer’s sexual assault allegations.
Speaking to the court today, Mr Bennett rebutted Ms Higgins’ defences that the posts she made were substantially true or her honest opinion.
Mr Bennett presented in court Ms Higgins’ tweets and text messages, alleging her claims of receiving no support from Senator Reynolds in the aftermath of her incident should be questioned.
“This is a woman who in her own agency said she is not proceeding with a police report,” he said.
“People were trying to support her even when she was away, but she wouldn’t have a bar of it.
“An unreasonable opinion expressed twice doesn’t make it reasonable.”
Throughout the trial, Mr Bennett claimed Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz carried out a plan to attack his client and purposely went to the media to air the allegations.
Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young previously told the court her client’s motivation in coming forward with her incident was to ensure no one else in parliament would go through the same situation.
In court, Mr Bennett read out text messages between Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz, alleging the pair conspired with each other to attack his client.
Texts read out in court included Mr Sharaz's messages - “suck sh**”, and “She'll never come back. Ha ha” - which Mr Bennett said was his reaction to reports that Senator Reynolds being admitted to hospital and needing time off work after Ms Higgins' allegations were made public.
"These shows this was coordinated between the two," he said in court.
"It’s plain they conspired together. 'We were the power couple', thus was the nature of their comments."
Senator Reynolds also sought aggravated damages, with Mr Bennett claiming Ms Higgins' conduct before making the social media posts contributed to his client’s suffering.
Mr Bennett told the court the damage to Senator Reynolds’ reputation was caused by Ms Higgins through making her allegations public in 2021.
Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by a fellow Liberal party staffer in Senator Reynolds’ Canberra office in 2019.
She made her allegations public through a televised interview with Network 10 reporter Lisa Wilkinson on The Project and an article by News Corporation journalist Samantha Maiden.
In court, Mr Bennett said the televised interview criticised Senator Reynolds and other parliamentary staff of mishandling the situation.
“Damage to Senator Reynolds’ reputation preceded the July 23 [social media] post is caused by Ms Higgins, through The Project interview and the Maiden article,” he said.
“It created a cloud of suspicion over Senator Reynolds’ reputation.”
Former Liberal party employee Bruce Lehrmann was charged with criminal offences over Ms Higgins’ sexual assault allegations.
A criminal trial against Mr Lehrmann started but was aborted because of juror misconduct.
Mr Lehrmann launched his own lawsuit against Network 10, alleging defamation, in the Federal Court of Australia.
A Federal Court judge found Mr Lehrmann did rape Ms Higgins in 2019, on the civil balance of probabilities, but he has continued to maintain his innocence.
Mr Lehrmann has appealed over the decision.
Mr Bennett finished his closing submissions this afternoon and Justice Tottle has reserved his judgment.
Outside court, Senator Reynolds said it was regrettable that she had taken the matter this far.
