‘Harassment’: Brittany Higgins’ defence revealed

Brittany Higgins has hit back at Linda Reynolds in newly released documents, ramping up discredited allegations that she was the victim of a political cover-up.

Brittany Higgins and Linda Reynolds.

Brittany Higgins has doubled down on her attack on former ­defence minister Linda Reynolds, alleging her former boss “engaged in a campaign of harassment” against her, including providing confidential information to the media, newly ­released court documents reveal.

Ms Higgins’ amended defence to Senator Reynolds’ defamation claim, filed in the West Australian Supreme Court, amplifies her allegations that she was the victim of an attempted cover-up, stating she felt under pressure not to make a complaint “in the interests of the Liberal Party” in the lead up to an election.

In his judgment in the Lehrmann defamation case this year, judge Michael Lee found, on the balance of probabilities, that Bruce Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins, but expressly rejected her claims that Senator Reynolds was involved in a cover-up of the assault. Mr Lehrmann has lodged an appeal.

Senator Reynolds is now suing Ms Higgins over a series of social media posts she says defamed her.

In her statement of claim Senator Reynolds said the posts were published to further a plan by Ms Higgins and her now-husband David Sharaz to use the allegations that Senator Reynolds had been involved in a political cover-up as a weapon to inflict immediate political damage on her.

Senator Reynolds has added a new pleading of tortious conspiracy to her defamation claim. Anthony Albanese’s closest confidantes, Katy Gallagher and Penny Wong, were drip-fed false information by Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz as part of a larger plan to destroy Senator Reynolds’ career and take down the Morrison government, the senator alleged.

Mr Sharaz also organised meetings between Ms Higgins and Labor MPs to discuss her rape allegations, the documents say, including then opposition leader Mr Albanese and Tanya Plibersek, as well as former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd.

However, Ms Higgins does not address dozens of pages of particulars provided by Senator Reynolds, simply stating that she “denies the allegations”. Ms Higgins claims in her amended defence that Senator Reynolds “mishandled the aftermath of the incident” and failed to support her.

She claims Senator Reynolds sought to dissuade her from speaking further with her about the ­alleged assault “by telling her she was not the right person to be talking to about it”; had minimised the incident by telling her “that this is something women go through”; and had then referred to the upcoming election.

Senator Reynolds had “placed pressure” on her, Ms Higgins said, by asking her whether she was going to report the matter to police, and saying if she was, she should let the minister know.

In a seemingly contradictory claim, Ms Higgins points out that Senator Reynolds had also asked her chief of staff Fiona Brown to report the incident to the Australian Federal Police without asking Ms Higgins if she wanted to.

Ms Higgins’ defence contains a series of allegations that Senator Reynolds “engaged in a campaign of harassment” against her by leaking confidential material relating to the mediation of her compensation claim against the federal government and by questioning the claim.

Ms Higgins claims Senator Reynolds provided correspondence related to the mediation to The Australian, citing a story in the newspaper revealing that the Albanese government muzzled Senator Reynolds in her defence against Ms Higgins’ multimillion-dollar lawsuit, threatening to tear up an agreement to pay the MP’s legal fees and any costs awarded unless she agreed not to attend a mediation.

Ms Higgins complains that Senator Reynolds gave an interview to The Australian detailing how she had, in fact, supported the young woman, “notwithstanding the defendant had given sworn testimony to the effect that she was not and did not feel appropriately supported”.

Ms Higgins alleges Senator Reynolds provided an internal ­departmental document to The Australian that resulted in a story entitled “Brittany Higgins’ compensation payout clouded by ­‘secret’ email, which “raised further questions about the settlement reached between the Commonwealth and the defendant”.

In her response to Ms Higgins' filed pleadings, Ms Reynolds ­denies any harassment, and says that she was entitled to deal with her own private documents as she saw fit, and that she is entitled to question “the circumstances of the defendant’s personal injury claim against the Commonwealth in circumstances where such a claim was founded on matters that were disputed by the plaintiff”.

In her amended statement of claim, Senator Reynolds said she “suffered physical and mental harm” including a pre-existing but undiagnosed cardiac condition and had previously been diagnosed with mild anxiety and depression, which were exacerbated as a result of the social media posts. She continued to take medication for anxiety and periodically visited a psychiatrist.

The case is set down for trial on August 2.

Ms Higgins claimed this week that she had been forced to sell her house in France in order to defend herself in the defamation case, as “the unspeakably high price” of speaking out on sexual assault.