Senator Linda Reynolds was cast as a villain in a fictional “fairytale” constructed in Brittany Higgins’ mind of a government cover-up of her alleged rape in Parliament House, a Perth court has heard.

Lawyers for the former defence minister said they did not contest that Bruce Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins in 2019, but argued a series of social media posts she published in the aftermath of the scandal “damnified” Senator Reynolds and subjected her to public “hatred, scandal, odium and contempt”.