Former defence minister Linda Reynolds must have known Brittany Higgins had been sexually assaulted when she met with her junior staffer, a defamation trial has been told.
Former defence minister Linda Reynolds must have known Brittany Higgins had been sexually assaulted when she met with her junior staffer, a defamation trial has been told.
Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation as she pursues vindication for a series of alleged mistruths.
Among them is the senator mishandled Ms Higgins' rape allegation by failing to support the then 24-year-old.
Senator Reynolds says she was not aware Ms Higgins had been raped when the pair met on April 1, 2019, eight days after the alleged incident.
Ms Higgins' lawyer Rachael Young SC told the court on Monday the claim wasn't credible.
"It became increasingly clear that Ms Higgins was in significant distress," she told the Western Australian Supreme Court during her opening submissions.
"Her (alleged) rapist had been fired.
"The notion that the senator had no suspicion of any criminal activity ... On the evidence that will not pass muster.
"She ought to have known or believed or suspected, that Ms Higgins had been sexually assaulted."
Ms Young said Senator Reynolds already knew Ms Higgins was found naked on a couch in the ministerial suite after Bruce Lehrmann "fled" Parliament House when the pair met.
"The senator did not tell Ms Higgins everything that she had learned," she said.
"We say also that the senator suggested to Ms Higgins that she was not the right person to be talking about it.
"So that's not the right response of an employer, and suggesting that Ms Higgins go and speak to someone else about it, effectively telling her to go elsewhere is not supportive and is not handling the allegation correctly."
Ms Higgins is using the defence of truth to fight Senator Reynolds' defamation claim.
After the trial opened on Friday, Senator Reynolds' lawyer Martin Bennett robustly defended her actions following Ms Higgins' alleged rape.
He said accusations of ill-treatment, ostracism, bullying, harassment and threatening conduct by the senator were a fiction concocted by Ms Higgins and her now husband David Sharaz.
"Every fairy tale needs a villain" and Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz "cast Senator Reynolds in that role for their fictional story of political cover-up of the rape," Mr Bennett told the court.
"She was cast in … critical light and none of it was true."
He noted Senator Reynolds had never disputed Ms Higgins' rape allegation and pointed to Ms Higgins' personal injury claim, over alleged mishandling of the incident, which the Commonwealth settled for $2.4 million in late 2022.
Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz created a detailed plan in 2020 and 2021 then courted journalists Lisa Wilkinson on Network Ten's The Project and Samantha Maiden from News Corp amid a "sophisticated" campaign to inflict maximum damage on Senator Reynolds, Mr Bennett said.
The trial is set down for about five weeks and high-profile witnesses including former prime minister Scott Morrison, former foreign minister Marise Payne, and WA Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash are expected to appear.
Senator Reynolds is scheduled to take the witness stand on Monday after Ms Higgins' lawyer completes her submissions.
Ms Higgins is expected to give evidence in the last week of August.
Lehrmann has always denied sexually assaulting Ms Higgins. His criminal trial was aborted because of juror misconduct and Ms Higgins' mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.
In a separate defamation case a judge in 2024 found Mr Lehrmann did - on the balance of probabilities - rape Ms Higgins but there was little evidence of a cover-up.
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National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
