Senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer flags $675,000 payout in damages from Brittany Higgins
A court has been told the astonishing figure Senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer wants Brittany Higgins to pay for her social media posts.
Senator Linda Reynolds has spoken outside court as her defamation trial against Brittany Higgins came to an end, telling reporters the years of proceedings has taken a toll on her but it was “regrettable” it had to be taken so far.
Her message come after her lawyer Martin Bennett told the WA Supreme Court the astonishing figure he says Ms Higgins should pay for her social media posts.
Outside court, Senator Reynolds told media she took legal action against Ms Higgins to defend allegations made about her and the non-existent cover-up of a rape.
She defended the decision to launch legal action against Ms Higgins, who she acknowledged had been raped in Parliament House.
“It’s important to note that I’ve never doubted or contradicted (Ms Higgins’ rape allegations), in fact I did everything I could to support the allegations,” she said.
“But this case is not about the allegation and the finding of rape. This is about what was said and what was alleged about my actions, the actions of Fiona Brown, the actions of Michaelia Cash, and this non-existent cover-up of a rape. That, for me, is what this is all about.”
The senator said the evidence presented during the trial revealed Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz hatched a plan to attack her.
After the five-week blockbuster defamation trial ended on Wednesday, Senator Reynolds said she felt a great sense of relief.
“It is highly regrettable I had to take it this far to not only defend my reputation but also to get the truth out there and stop the publication of things that are not true,” she said.
“I think you would be a brave person to predict what a judge will find but I am very content that under Mr Bennett and his team’s support that I and many others could have their say on this matter.
“It has taken its toll on me and everybody I love, it was very good for me after three and a half years to be able to tell my story and for my family and friends and colleagues to also be able to tell the truth.”
Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over a number of social media posts the pair made in 2022 and 2023.
The posts were critical of Senator Reynolds’ handling of Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped in Parliament House in 2019 by her then-colleague Mr Lehrmann.
He was charged with 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.
Mr Lehrmann lost a subsequent civil defamation case in April this year when the Federal Court determined, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House. He is appealing that decision.
HIGGINS SHOULD PAY $675K: LAWYER
Prior to this, Mr Bennett highlighted multiple legal decisions to the court, saying they should be a starting point for the damages Ms Higgins should pay.
He proposed a starting point of $675,000, which was the figure paid out to former NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro.
Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young finished her closing argument on Tuesday saying the whole matter should be dismissed, but did point out that damages in defamation matters involving politicians usually received much smaller amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Ms Higgins has been forced to sell her home in France to cover legal fees which are expected to be in the millions of dollars for both parties.
Senator Reynolds has said she had to mortgage her Perth home to pay for legal fees and risks losing her home if she loses.
“NAIL THE LIES”
In his final closing arguments, Mr Bennett urged the court to “nail the lies” which were perpetuated by Ms Higgins since making her rape allegation public in 2021.
Mr Bennett told the court Ms Higgins “grossly defamed” the senator in her posts, insisting she had mishandled the rape allegation and harassed her.
In a short response, Ms Young told the court there was an entire series of events in 2021 which led to the senator’s hurt and distress.
She said these included the lying cow incident, the loss of the defence portfolio and hospitalisation.
Ms Young argued the limitation act set out a short period for defamation, but the senator chose not to sue Ms Higgins because there were criminal proceedings and she wanted to wait.
Ms Young said the court should not make that finding because Senator Reynolds did not give that evidence about the delay.
She said the limitation period would have been over in 2022 and the senator submitted her writ in 2023.
“We say you should not reward the plaintiff in respect to those damages,” Ms Young said.
HIGGINS REPEATEDLY DEFAMED SENATOR: LAWYER
Ms Higgins is not being sued because she was raped, she is being sued because she defamed, the court was told.
Mr Bennett said what happened to Ms Higgins’ did not give her a licence to defame.
On three occasions Ms Higgins claimed Senator Reynolds had tried to silence victims of sexual assault, Mr Bennett told the court.
He said Ms Higgins was not speaking out about sexual assault but was defaming his client.
The lawyer told the court it was significant aggravated damages about conduct that was repeated over a number of years.
“If she does not establish the truth, she will always continue to refer to her truth and continue to defame,” he said.
Mr Bennett finished by saying Senator Reynolds was entitled to a substantial amount of damages and to vindicated her reputation from the lies that have been told since 2021.
“The acts of Ms Higgins reveal she will not accept a finding, she did not accept Justice Lee’s findings because they did not corroborate with her truth,” Mr Bennett said.
“It is important the court recognises that by a substantial reward, just because Senator Reynolds is a politician does not mean she should receive a smaller reward.”
HIGGINS “STOLE JACKET” FROM SENATOR: LAWYER
Mr Bennett accused Ms Higgins of taking a designer jacket from her former boss.
He told the court the senator believed her junior staffer stole her Carla Zampatti jacket.
Mr Bennett said that as the senator believed Ms Higgins had stolen the jacket, Senator Reynolds could not have been harassing her former staffer.
“She probably did (take the jacket),” Mr Bennett told the court.
Ms Higgins has previously stated she took the jacket from a good will box in the senator’s office after she left Parliament House on the morning of the alleged rape.
Mr Bennett said the senator was not harassing Ms Higgins when she gave an interview on Spotlight, telling the court his client could not be criticised for being in a position of safe neutrality when she gave the interview.
At the time, Bruce Lehrmann had not been convicted of any criminal charges in relation to the alleged rape and was in the process of launching his own defamation proceedings, Mr Bennett told the court.
HIGGINS SAID SENATOR WANTED TO ‘SILENCE VICTIMS’: LAWYER
Mr Bennett told the court it was defamatory of Ms Higgins to say the senator wanted to silence victims of sexual assault.
One of the social media posts Ms Higgins is being sued over by Senator Reynolds suggested the senator wanted to silence victims of sexual assault.
Ms Higgins is defending the post on the grounds it was truthful.
Mr Bennett told the court the senator had spoken out about preventing the media from exploiting victims who had made a complaint.
In doing so, the senator pointed to NSW legislation that prevents victims of sexual assault from speaking to media before a criminal matter is prosecuted.
Mr Bennett told the court no one had said the legislation in NSW was trying to silence victims.
He said it was not a question of silencing victims but rather a complaint should be worked through the criminal justice system.
Justice Paul Tottle interrupted the lawyer, saying the effect of the change in law that was the subject matter of the submission in question, would prevent victims discussing with the media what happened to them.
Justice Tottle said the amendment contemplated by the senator would make it a new offence that would prohibit a person, which was close to silence.
Mr Bennett argued the senator’s position was to prosecute perpetrators, and not to make it more difficult.
TEXT MESSAGES ‘MOCKED SENATOR’: LAWYER
Text messages between Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz illustrate how the couple orchestrated a campaign to hurt Senator Reynolds and bring down the Morrison government, the court was told earlier on Wednesday.
Mr Bennett told the court a text conversation between Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz showed the pair “mocking” the senator for being hospitalised after Ms Higgins went public with her rape allegation.
The senator was hospitalised after she collapsed in parliament. She had faced intense questioning by Labor senators over Ms Higgins’ allegations.
Messages were read out in court showing the pair discussing the senator taking time off work, and talking with journalists about her.
“Linda has delayed her return to work hahah” and “some sh*t Linda you are walking in it,” messages read.
Mr Bennett said the messages “mock the fact the attack initiated on my client has caused her to go on sick leave”.
He said Ms Higgins told news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden “off the record” that she did not think the senator should lose her job.
It had been widely reported in the media that it was no longer tenable for Senator Reynolds to hold the defence ministry.
“Why off the record?” he questioned.
“Did she not want Maiden to publish, we say her genuine honest belief after the allegations she made against Reynolds?” Mr Bennett asked.
Other text messages between the pair revealed Ms Higgins cleared her phone out before she reopened her complaint about the alleged rape with the Australian Federal Police.
SENATOR’S REPUTATION
The court was told the defence’s claim that by the time Brittany Higgins published social media post in 2022 and 2023 Senator Linda Reynolds reputation was already “baked in”, is wrong.
Mr Bennett argued Senator Reynolds’ reputation was called into question after The Project interview and an article was published on news.com.au about Ms Higgins’ allegations.
He said the stories attacked Senator Reynolds and made her look like a villain, telling the court dozens of witnesses gave evidence which established Senator Reynolds had a good reputation.
He told the court the onus was on the defence to prove the senator already had a bad reputation.
“The damage was caused by Ms Higgins as a result of The Project interview and Maiden article that created a cloud of suspicion,” he said.
“It is not proof of a bad reputation, there never would have been such suspicion.
“She was vilified for covering up a rape … and isolating her in a hotel room in WA.”
Mr Bennett said the court should consider higher amounts in his assessment of damage.
SENATOR’S CONDUCT DURING CRIMINAL TRIAL
Mr Bennett said the defence’s imputation Senator Reynolds engaged in questionable conduct during Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial focused on the conduct of the senator’s partner Robert Reid.
He said it could not be seriously contested because the senator’s partner attended the criminal trial each day, and she wanted to know what was said in court.
Senator Reynolds was a witness in the trial and was working in Rwanda when criminal proceedings against Mr Lehrmann started in the ACT Magistrates Court.
During the criminal trial, Senator Reynolds sent Mr Lehrmann’s lawyer Steve Whybrow a text message asking if the daily court transcripts could be sent to her lawyer.
Mr Bennett argued it was reasonable for his client to be interested in the criminal trial because she had been slandered for the past 18 months, and was being sued by Ms Higgins in another matter.
Mr Bennett said it was relevant what was being said in the criminal trial for the civil trial, but she did not ask for the transcript herself, she asked for the transcript to be sent to her lawyer.
Mr Bennett added when Mr Reid was seen talking to Mr Whybrow outside the court at the criminal trial it could have been about anything.
He said it did not mean the senator engaged in questionable conduct.
HIGGINS’ EVIDENCE ‘FICTION’: LAWYER
Mr Bennett told the court Ms Higgins’ evidence during her personal injury claim with the Commonwealth was complete fiction.
He said when she was asked about seeking counselling and being offered support in the wake of her allegations, her answers were wrong.
“The only thing she got right was when the federal election was called,” he said.
“Every paragraph in these particulars is wrong.”
Senator Reynolds was excluded from the mediation proceedings when a $2.4m settlement was made between Ms Higgins and the Commonwealth, the court was told.
The senator has maintained she was never given an opportunity to defend any allegations that were made against her during the settlement.
She believed the Commonwealth had engaged in a level of corruption surrounding the compensation payment.
The senator reported the settlement to the National Anti-Corruption Committee to investigate circumstances surrounding the settlement.
Mr Bennett argued the senator was entitled to provide journalists with a letter she received about the settlement that was marked confidential and privileged.
He told the court not a single sentence in the letter was a scrap of legal privilege or was about Ms Higgins.
He said this was not harassing Ms Higgins, but the senator was concerned about the conduct of the Commonwealth and how the settlement was reached.
HIGGINS MIXED FACT WITH OPINION: LAWYER
Mr Bennett said the concept of a 24 hour news cycle was only a fallacy of thought by people who lived their life on the internet or phone.
He said a social media post created by Ms Higgins mixed fact with opinion, arguing that altered the analysis of the opinion when the underlying facts were wrong.
Mr Bennett said the matter misrepresented the truth and there was no public interest in misinformation.
“You can’t gloss over the requirement to act reasonably,” he said.
The trial has now concluded, with the judge to deliver judgment at a later date.
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