Final days of Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial against Brittany Higgins begin but verdict could be months away
The final push in the blockbuster defamation trial brought by Senator Linda Reynolds against her former junior media adviser is about to get underway, but the verdict is expected to take weeks or even months.
The trial ran for most of last month in WA’s Supreme Court before Justice Paul Tottle and heard from almost two dozen witnesses, but the now France-based Ms Higgins was not among them.
Through her lawyer Rachel Young, Ms Higgins has argued she did not intend to denigrate the outgoing senator when she posted remarks on social media in 2022 and last year.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.In them, she referred to being “bullied” and her refusal to “stay silent”, having claimed her then-boss mishandled her allegation that she had been raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the former defence minister’s Parliament House office in 2019.
Mr Lehrmann was charged with raping Ms Higgins, but his 2022 trial was aborted due to juror misconduct, and he continues to maintain his innocence.
But in a subsequent defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson that he lost in April this year, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee determined, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House.
Justice Lee also found that the other claim in the Network Ten story, of a political cover-up involving Senator Reynolds and others, was not true.
Speaking to reporters outside the defamation trial, Senator Reynolds has repeatedly pointed to Justice Lee’s findings and took the stand for a whole week, describing the mishandling allegations as having left her feeling “like a fairground punching clown”.
Ms Higgins, who wed David Sharaz in June and is pregnant, decided against testifying mid-way through the trial and was excused on health grounds.
Mr Sharaz is also being sued by the senator but decided against defending himself before the trial began after being represented by a lawyer at earlier hearings.
The closing addresses are set to start on Monday and are scheduled for three days, with Ms Young up first.
