Higgins breaks silence on court drama
Brittany Higgins has broken her silence on the long running legal dispute with her former boss Senator Linda Reynolds after court documents about the defamation suit were made public.
The senator is suing the former Liberal staffer for defamation, with Senator Reynolds claiming her reputation was damaged in multiple social media posts.
She claims the posts by Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz, suggested she had engaged in a political cover-up about Ms Higgins’ alleged rape at Parliament House.
In documents obtained by The Australian, Senator Reynolds amended her statement of claim against Ms Higgins to also include a claim of tortious conspiracy.
Senator Reynolds claims Ms Higgins “acted maliciously” when she created the social media posts with her husband, and they had intentionally set out to harm her and the federal government.
Breaking her silence for the first time, a spokesperson for Ms Higgins on Tuesday said she was steadfast in her “truth” about the aftermath of her alleged rape in Parliament House.
“She is being forced back into the courtroom for the third time to canvas these distressing events,” the spokesperson said.
In the Federal Court earlier this year, Justice Michael Lee ruled he was convinced to a civil standard – which is different to a criminal standard – on the balance of probabilities Ms Higgins was raped.
The finding came following legal action Mr Lehrmann brought against Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a report about the alleged rape on The Project program in 2021.
Mr Lehrmann is appealing the decision.
Justice Lee also found claims of a political cover-up involving Senator Reynolds and others were not true, a finding Senator Reynolds said vindicated her.
Ms Reynolds told reporters she needed to clear her name, and that Justice Lee was very clear there was never any political conspiracy and that “many people’s lives had been destroyed in the fallout of Ms Higgins’ allegations.
“There was simply never any political conspiracy and there was certainly the allegations of mistreatment as the evidence in the Lee trial has absolutely demonstrated,” she said.
The parties met for mediation talks to try and settle the claim at the WA Supreme Court on March 5, which saw Ms Higgins and her husband travel to Perth from their new home in France.
Hour-long talks failed to reach an outcome and the matter was vacated after Ms Higgins was hospitalised following the marathon session.
Talks failed again on May 21 when a last-ditch attempt was made to settle the claim before it went to trial.
In October 2022, a criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court against Mr Lehrmann was aborted because of jury misconduct.
A mistrial was declared and the jury was dismissed after it was discovered one of the jurors had conducted their own research outside of what was presented in court.
The trial was relisted for February 2023, but was abandoned and the charge dropped when the Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold found another trial would pose an unacceptable risk to Ms Higgins’ mental health.
A trial to settle the defamation case between Senator Reynolds and Ms Higgins is set to take place in the WA Supreme Court on August 2.
High profile witnesses including former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Senator Michaela Cash and Seantor Wendy Askew are likely to be called to give evidence at the trial.
