Brittany Higgins posts message to Instagram after Linda Reynolds responds to rape, defamation case
Brittany Higgins has taken to Instagram hours after her former boss Linda Reynolds insisted she would continue defamation actions against her unless Ms Higgins accepted the Federal Court’s findings that there was no political cover-up of her rape.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee last week ruled that, on the balance of probabilities, Ms Higgins was raped by then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Senator Reynolds’ office in March 2019.
Ms Higgins issued a statement saying that she acknowledged that Senator Reynolds and veteran Liberal staffer Fiona Brown, who was the office’s chief of staff at the time, had been hurt throughout the years of court cases and public debate over the handling of the matter.
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“For that, I am also sorry,” Ms Higgins said.
On Sunday afternoon, Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds responded to the statement, saying that she hoped the recent findings gave Ms Higgins peace.
But the Liberal politician added that her defamation action against Ms Higgins and her fiance David Shiraz was never about the rape allegation, but “what Justice Lee exposed as false allegations raised two years after the rape” of “a dreadful and damaging political cover-up”.
Three hours after Ms Reynolds’ statement, Ms Higgins took to Instagram to post.
“Ah, wonderful,” Ms Higgins wrote on her Instagram story. “Keep showing people the truth of who you really are.”
The comments were accompanied by a photo showing the sun setting over sand dunes covered in 4WD track marks.
In Ms Reynolds’ statement, the WA senator said her defamation action had come at an “enormous emotional and financial cost”, and she had fought for “three years to expose the truth in relation to my conduct”.
“Looking forward, I welcome Ms Higgins’ olive branch and her commitment to engage with me to reach a resolution. I hope Mr Sharaz will now make a similar approach,” she said.
She said that while Ms Higgins’ statement referred to a difference in perceptions, “it is a fact that Ms Higgins received our support and that there was no cover-up”.
“If Ms Higgins does not accept Justice Lee’s findings on the claims of cover-up and mistreatment, then, regrettably, it will have to be proved again in our trial set for July this year. “
Justice Lee’s ruling came as the result of Mr Lehrmann taking defamation action against Network Ten, which was dismissed.
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