Sharaz could be bankrupt if he loses: Reynolds’ lawyer
Brittany Higgins’ fiance could ‘go bankrupt’ if he loses the defamation claim lodged against him by former Liberal Minister Linda Reynolds, after abandoning his defence of the case.
Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz could “go bankrupt” if he loses the defamation claim lodged against him by former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds, following his declaration he was abandoning his defence of the case.
In the midst of a directions hearing in the West Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday, Mr Sharaz posted a statement on social media saying he could not afford to pay the costs of a six-week trial fighting Senator Reynolds’ legal action.
Senator Reynolds has made it clear through her lawyer, Martin Bennett, that she has no intention of abandoning her case against Mr Sharaz or Ms Higgins without an apology over their allegations she was involved in a cover-up of Ms Higgins’ rape by Bruce Lehrmann. Senator Reynolds says the cover-up allegations – found by Justice Michael Lee to be false – destroyed her reputation.
Mr Sharaz tweeted his decision to abandon his defence – and an appeal for Senator Reynolds to “settle her litigation with Ms Higgins, a rape victim” – while the court hearing before Justice Paul Tottle was still in session.
Outside the court, Mr Bennett described the timing of the tweet as ironic given Mr Sharaz posted it while his defence to a defamation action over tweets was being heard.
“It seemed to be staged ... You’ve seen the terms of the post – it’s another attack on Senator Reynolds,” Mr Bennett said.
He described it as insulting and an “attention-seeking stunt to manipulate the media”.
“That’s what Mr Sharaz does best,” he said, noting the legal action would go ahead regardless. “He defamed my client. You can jump off litigation but it’s a costly exercise.”
Mr Bennett ridiculed Mr Sharaz’s claim that he could not afford his defence, observing he now lived with Ms Higgins in a five-bedroom country house in the south of France. “He lives in a chateau. He hasn’t got a job and he’s got a QC and a junior solicitor, two solicitors representing him,” he said. “If he’s impecunious as he asserts in France, he’ll go bankrupt.”
It is understood Mr Sharaz’s lawyers have thus far been working on a pro-bono basis.
Earlier this year, Senator Reynolds took steps to freeze Ms Higgins’ assets after she and Mr Sharaz went to live in France, to ensure the $2.4m, or any part of it, was not beyond the reach of an adverse defamation judgment.
Mystery surrounds the purposes and holdings of a trust apparently set up by Ms Higgins, active from February 9 last year, called The Brittany Higgins Protective Trust.
In his judgment, Justice Lee slammed the cover-up allegation pushed by Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz as “objectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies”.
“Trying to particularise it during the evidence was like trying to grab a column of smoke,” he wrote.
Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz over social media posts in 2022 and 2023, arguing the posts pushed false allegation that she was part of an attempt to cover-up the rape of Ms Higgins by Mr Lehrmann.
After Justice Lee’s finding that those allegations were false, Ms Higgins issued a public statement in which she acknowledged that “Senator Reynolds and (her then chief of staff) Fiona Brown have also been hurt and for that I am also sorry”.
Senator Reynolds said she appreciated the apology and hoped the findings would give Ms Higgins peace, but would continue her defamation case unless Ms Higgins accepted Justice Lee’s findings there was no political 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,” she said.
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