WA Senator Linda Reynolds has recounted how her health spiraled after the story about Brittany Higgins’ 2019 rape claims surfaced in the media.
WA Senator Linda Reynolds has recounted how her health spiraled after the explosive story about Brittany Higgins’ 2019 rape claims against Bruce Lehrmann surfaced in the media.
Day three of Senator Reynolds’ defamation case against her former staffer, Ms Higgins, centred around the immediate emotional aftermath of the senator learning about the allegations, and hearing them aired for the first time in parliament and the news.
Speaking in court on Tuesday afternoon, Senator Reynolds said her standing in the halls of parliament changed dramatically after the story broke in national news.
“In the space of a couple of days I had gone from a senator and minister doing her job and doing it well, to being nationally vilified as somebody who would do something so despicable,” she said.
“It became so overwhelming … this relentless questioning about this matter which I did not believe had any right to even be aired in parliament.
“Everybody looked at me differently, even people on my own side were keeping their distance asking ‘had she really done this thing’.”
Senator Reynolds said it was devastating not being able to defend herself against attacks in parliament.
She recalled feeling distressed and suffering from heart and chest pains during question time, at one point being unable to read what was on paper in front of her.
“My knees started buckling and I went out of the room,” she said.
“On each side there’s an antechamber room for senators so I made my way in there, sat on the couch and I just started sobbing uncontrollably.
“I was in incredible pain, chest pain, and I just literally was completely and utterly incoherent.”
Senator Reynolds said medical help, include a counsellor she still uses, had been required on several occasions as the “media frenzy” enveloped her office.
She told court former prime minister Scott Morrison had consoled her and shared how the issue had tested relationships with his own daughters.
On several occasions Senator Reynolds told court she was taken to hospital, and she had to cancel a Press Club briefing which led to media speculation she was avoiding scrutiny.
“The thing about parliament is you never show weakness,” she said.
“No matter how tough things get you are expected to tough it out.
“In addition to everything else going on I had this humiliation of collapsing in front of the nation, as the defence minister of our nation.”
Health concerns ultimately led to Senator Reynolds taking sick leave, and eventually dropping her defence ministry in exchange for two minor portfolios.
Senator Kitching connection
Earlier in the day Senator Reynolds told court Federal Labor members were preparing to “rain hell” on the Morrison government after learning about the rape allegations in 2021.
Senator Reynolds told court the late Kimberley Kitching let her know the Labor Party had found out about the incident with Bruce Lehrmann and were angry she had not passed on a letter which could have been “weaponised” against the government.
Ms Kitching had received an anonymous letter about the incident in 2020, Senator Reynolds said, and had passed it on to the Australian Federal Police.
Proceedings were briefly adjourned as the senator recounted the series of events involving Ms Kitching when Senator Reynolds raised health concerns discussing the sensitive events.
The trial to date
The WA senator launched the defamation action against Ms Higgins, claiming her reputation was damaged by a series of social media posts relating to Ms Higgins’ 2019 rape allegation against Bruce Lehrmann.
The senator argues Ms Higgins’ implications her former boss had not supported her caused distress, health problems, and reputational damage.
Speaking in court on Tuesday, Senator Reynolds said she “felt sick” reading breaking news of the rape claims and felt sorry for Ms Higgins.
“As angry and upset as I was going through reading this, I also started feeling sorry for her, I started thinking well what have we missed,” she said.
“Her account was so different to my memory as to what had happened two years ago.
“There was no reason for me to doubt what she was saying, what she had remembered, and that this is what had occurred.
“But it is not like we just got it a little wrong, what she was saying is we got it completely wrong.”
Addressing early media reports of the incident, Senator Reynolds said Mr Lehrmann was not a rising star as claimed, and that she had gone to “extreme measures” to ensure no one else employed him after he was sacked.
Senator Reynolds’ legal team earlier in the day inserted a fresh social media post shared by Brittany Higgins on Monday as evidence in a blockbuster defamation trial.
The post in question – which court was told was shared by Ms Higgins and republished by her partner, David Sharaz – depicted a book with the headline How Many More Women? How the law silences women, with a personal note which stated “pertinent reading”.
Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett argued the post was an attempt to “mischaracterise the nature of these proceedings” by suggesting his client was trying to silence a sexual assault survivor.
Mr Bennett said the timing of the post was not coincidental.
Mr Bennett also flagged he would seek to subpoena Saxon Mullins, who launched a crowdfunding campaign titled #standwithbrittanyhiggins which had raised more than $23,000.
Beginning a week of giving evidence in person on Monday, Senator Reynolds told the court she did not know Ms Higgins had been raped in her office days prior to meeting the former staffer in the same room.
Earlier on Monday, Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young argued in her opening submissions that Senator Reynolds had a “mountain of evidence” to show her staffer had been sexually assaulted, even though the words “rape” or “sexual assault” were not used during the discussion in that room.
Ms Higgins’ case will rely on the truth defence.
Day one of the trial last Friday saw Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett argue Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz had concocted a “fairytale” in which the senator was cast as the “villain”.
That argument was based around what Mr Bennett described as a plan created by the pair to damage Senator Reynolds, for which journalists Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden were used.
Ms Young told court those claims were “harassing and re-traumatising” Ms Higgins and had trivialised reasons for speaking out about rape and workplace culture.
The defamation case is being presided over by Justice Paul Tottle and is due to take place over five weeks.
Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial was aborted in 2022 due to juror misconduct and concerns for Ms Higgins’ welfare.
In separate defamation action this year, Mr Lehrmann was on the balance of probabilities found to have raped Ms Higgins by the federal court.
Mr Lehrmann has always insisted he was innocent.
