Reynolds vs Higgins Day 7: Senator’s partner Robert Reid denies he was ‘keeping an eye’ on Lehrmann rape trial

Linda Reynolds’ partner has flatly denied he sat in on the rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann so he could keep the Senator updated on the evidence — and also claimed he didn’t even care about the verdict.

Under intense cross-examination at WA’s Supreme Court, Robert Reid was asked about when and why he decided to sit in on the 2022 trial of Mr Lehrmann, accused of raping Brittany Higgins years earlier in Parliament House.

He was also asked about what he did when he was there — including taking notes — and afterwards.

And in answer, Mr Reid denied that he was there to “keep an eye” on proceedings, despite Senator Reynolds later stating to a confidant that is what he was doing.

He stated he did take some notes, but threw them out later.

And he was categorical in his claim that he was not “reporting back”, or even telling her he was there.

“I was not keeping an eye on it for anybody, even myself. I was never keeping an eye on the case,” he said.

“I didn’t tell her I was going to the trial. She found out I was there when I was trying to get her back early. I didn’t talk to her about the trial.”

Mr Reid’s evidence came as Senator Reynolds’ defamation claim against Ms Higgins, alleging her reputation was shredded by Ms Higgins’ social media posts — part of a concerted plan to ruin her and damage her government.

Ms Higgins and her legal team said those claims were substantially true. And that it takes in criticism made of Ms Reynolds and her partner for the way they conducted themselves during Mr Lehrmann’s trial.

Describing the preparation for the trial, Mr Reid attended a meeting with prosecutor Shane Drumgold — a meeting he said concerned him.

‘The DPP had no idea books were being written about this case, or how big this whole thing was going to be,’ he said.

‘I said, “this is a circus — she (Brittany) wants to walk into that courtroom every day, she wants those photos”.’

In earlier evidence, Mr Reid became emotional as he recalled the night a doctor told him: “We might lose her” in the wake of the emotional fallout of Brittany Higgins’ rape claim, along with allegations of a cover-up in her ministerial office.

Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz in the WA Supreme Court over posts shared in 2022 and 2023 which were critical of Ms Reynolds’ handling of Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped in Parliament House in 2019 by her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann.

Mr Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to rape and faced trial in 2022, but the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.

The charge was dropped and Mr Lehrmann continues to maintain his innocence.

After Senator Reynolds’ week on the witness stand, her partner Robert Reid was called to give evidence on Monday morning.

He was quizzed about the days prior to the airing of Ms Higgins’ accusations in print and then on TV – which he said had no inkling of until those stories broke.

“Linda did not mention it to me beforehand... it was a topic of some anger from me — and she never, she never talked about it.

“She said: ‘It’s not my story to tell’. She said that repeatedly to me.

“Some of the accusations in the article I remember not being able to believe them about the accusations. The Project, it was difficult to watch once again. It was it was painful, painful to watch.

“It’s always, it’s the cover-up. That’s the most dangerous thing of all — senior ministers don’t cover up things like this.”

Mr Reid said he was also angry at her reaction.

“I wanted her to have some really good lines. I wanted her to work out even with the prime minister’s office about what could be said,” he said.

“She promised not to talk about it. She said ‘It’s not my story to tell’. I said that’s that’s not going to be enough.”

Mr Reid went on to describe how he saw the post-interview fallout, including a message to urgently attend Parliament days later.

He said when he arrived he found the Senator “white and dishevelled”, before being told to attend hospital.

“We sat on the park bench in the dark,” Mr Reid said before a cardiologist opened his own clinic to see her urgently.

“He said: ‘We might lose her — this is very serious’. And Linda still at that point, wanted to give the speech (to the Press Club).

“Linda is such a strong person, and I thought — stupidly — she could give that speech the next day. And handle those questions.

“It was a dreadful night, I don’t think she slept — and I was told the speech had been cancelled. That was really the only decision, even though it would be damaging to her career and the future of the government.

“Then the decision was made to get her into hospital. It was not an option to stay at home, because of the TV cameras.”

Mr Reid said while his partner went to a friend’s house to recover, he returned to Perth — to more cameras.

He told the court that months earlier, Ms Reynolds had received a death threat, taken so seriously that the AFP installed cameras in the Senator’s home in Canberra and Perth.

“I drove down the driveway of the house next door ... I knew my neighbours well. I knocked on the door and I said: ‘I’m a bit trapped. I can’t get into the house.’

“They put a ladder against their back fence. I climbed over, jumped down, went to get a ladder from my shed and put that against a matching ladder. I went through the back door and there I stayed for a few days.”

In the days that followed, Mr Reid said her partner considered her future.

“She fully believed she might not be reappointed to another job, certainly not Defence — which was her love,” Mr Reid said.

“She had built herself up over the years to be the perfect Defence minister.”

Quizzed about his controversial attendance at the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann, Mr Reid insisted he decided to attend – and did not tell Ms Reynolds he was going to go.

He said his communication with his partner during those days — while Ms Reynolds was in Rwanda — was “very, very limited”.

And when it emerged that Ms Reynolds would have to give evidence earlier than planned, and then she did, Mr Reid said she was left emotional.

“The DPP decided to treat her differently — to make accusations about my presence. She was quite emotional,” Mr Reid said.

“She was quite emotional afterwards, because she was not able to get her story fully across, and she was attacked for one or two issues that she didn’t see coming.”

Asked about Ms Higgins’ compensation claim, which was agreed to by the Federal Government, Mr Reid said he witnessed his partner’s anger.

“She was she was very angry about it being done so quickly. She was particularly angry about her views not being considered and not being any being given any detail.

“She was worried, once again, about her story not being heard, her truth, if you like, not being heard.”

And he said when Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial began last year, Mr Reid repeated the Senator’s evidence about how that allegedly revealed to them the alleged “Plan” by Ms Higgins and David Sharaz to damage the government and her.

“We both saw that, and that certainly communicated the single-minded desire to destroy Linda and destroy the Government … and the hatred of Linda in the government,” he said.

“We absolutely discussed it, because this went to the heart of what it was all about. This went to the heart of an effort to bring down Linda and bring down the government.”

He added that the social media posts which followed — some of which are being sued on — was part of a “never-ending, vitriolic campaign”.

In the build-up to Ms Reynolds’ defamation trial, Mr Reid was asked about two events - Ms Higgins moving to France, and then returning to a mediation in Perth in March.

“She saw Brittany running away ... she saw the potential of Brittany hiding,” Mr Reid said. And when she returned — and posted a picture online with the caption ‘I won’t stay silent so you can stay comfortable’, Mr Reid said that was “just extraordinary.”

“It’s never been about staying comfortable ... and it’s never been about Brittany staying silent. It’s just more hatred I think.”

Earlier, a psychologist told how she was called in to treat Senator Linda Reynolds for anxiety and other health symptoms in the fallout of the Brittany Higgins scandal — and also how the Senator unloaded her feelings towards her junior staffer and others.

Notes from various sessions between Ms Reynolds and April Jones were unveiled at the ongoing defamation trial pitting Ms Reynolds and Ms Higgins in legal conflict over social media posts in 2022 and 2023.

And in them were some startling revelations about the private sessions – including an allegation that Ms Higgins was planning to attend the Senator’s Press Club scheduled speech in 2021 until the WA politician was hospitalised with heart problems.

Other notes from Ms Jones divulged how Ms Reynolds had decided not to run in parliament, how she stated “Sam M was awful”, her upset with Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and that “Peter Dutton undermined me.”

She also mentioned the Carla Zampatti jacket Ms Higgins took from her office the morning after she said she was raped.

“(She) found out Brittany stole her … jacket from her office and lied about it,” Ms Jones’ notes said.

“There were times she was very mentally unwell — the times she came to see me, she was generally heightened.

“It would be fair to say there were times that she felt better than other times. So overall, I wouldn’t say she was better but she did go up and down.”

The WA politician spent a week in the witness box and faced intense questioning from Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachel Young over what she knew about Ms Higgins’ alleged sexual assault in the senator’s ministerial office.

Senator Reynolds maintained in court last week she had no knowledge Ms Higgins had been sexually assaulted after she received a Department of Parliamentary Services report days after the security breach in her office.

The court was told the report contained information that Ms Higgins was found in the senator’s office undressed, intoxicated and had been checked on by two female security officers during the night.

The senator told the court there were many possibilities about what could have occurred between two drunk people in their 20s and she had not wanted to jump to conclusions.

Outside of the David Malcolm Justice Centre in Perth on Friday, the senator said she was grateful to the court for the opportunity to provide her evidence so she could head back to Parliament.

“I am relieved I can get back to work,” she said.

This week the trial will also hear from former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and people who worked with Ms Higgins and the senator during the 2019 Federal Election campaign in Perth including members of Senator Reynolds’ family.

Brittany Higgins will start giving her evidence on August 26, marking the third time she will give evidence in a trial following her complaint to the Australian Federal Police in 2019.

The trial continues.

with AAP