Former Liberal party staffer Brittany Higgins put together a document about her assault allegations to send to journalists, Senator Linda Reynolds' lawyer claimed in court.
Former Liberal party staffer Brittany Higgins put together a document about her assault allegations to send to journalists, Senator Linda Reynolds' lawyer claimed in court.
Senator Reynolds sued her former employee over social media posts she claimed Ms Higgins published and was defamatory of the Western Australian politician.
The defamation trial between the pair has been ongoing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, with lawyers making their closing statements this month.
Senator Reynolds also sat in the court room behind her lawyer, arriving in the morning and staying until the proceedings ended for today.
Ms Higgins accused another Liberal party staffer of raping her in Senator Reynolds' Canberra office after a function in 2019.
The allegations were made public in 2021.
Speaking to the court today, Senator Reynolds' lawyer Martin Bennett claimed Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz planned to give information over her alleged assault to the media.
Throughout the trial, Mr Bennett told the court Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz had a plan to attack his client.
Ms Higgins' lawyer Rachael Young previously told the court her client went public with her allegations because of her concerns of sexual assault in the government.
But Mr Bennett said there was little reference about the assault in the report given to police, with more details contained in the dossier he claimed Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz put together.
"That document being put together, it can’t be accepted that it was for the police," he said in court.
"It’s plainly a document put together for journalists.
"There’s no mention about parliamentary reform or improvement, it doesn’t refer to a single policy or procedure."
In court, Mr Bennett said Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz was helped by Sky News host Peta Credlin in compiling the statement released to the media in 2021.
Ms Bennett also claimed Ms Higgins had made errors in the documents she compiled about the incident.
"Why would she get that deliberately wrong?," he said.
"Because she was driven in the defence of this matter to maintain her truth, not the truth."
Ms Higgins' sexual assault allegations were made public through interviews with media outlets in 2021, including on Network 10’s The Project.
A criminal trial against former Liberal party employee Bruce Lehrmann over Ms Higgins’ allegations was launched but was aborted because of juror misconduct.
Mr Lehrmann continued to maintain his innocence, but a Federal Court judge found he had raped Ms Higgins, based on the civil threshold of the balance of probabilities.
The defamation trial continues with Mr Bennett expected to wrap up his closing statements tomorrow.
