What Justice Lee has to say about ‘vindicated’ Linda Reynolds | Samantha Maiden
Peter Dutton has reacted to a judge’s ruling that Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins. But there was one crucial name he made no mention of.
Peter Dutton had a big takeout after the judge in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial found that “Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins” on a couch in a cabinet minister’s office.
There was no mention of Brittany Higgins by name, no words of support, in response to such a grave and serious finding.
Instead, the Liberal leader had this to say.
“I think Linda Reynolds has absolutely been vindicated,’’ Mr Dutton told reporters in her hometown of Perth.
“She’s a first-class individual, a person of great honour and integrity. Her reputation has been besmirched, and she’s right to pursue the matter in the way that she is.”
The ‘matter’ he is referring to is Linda Reynolds suing Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz for defamation over social media posts.
It’s true that Justice Lee skewered Ms Higgins and her partner in his 324-page judgment for having “crafted a narrative”.
“The cover-up allegation was objectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies,” Justice Lee said in his opening remarks.
He found on the balance of probabilities in a civil trial that Ms Higgins was raped. He found the cover up narrative was not substantiated.
It was a narrative that genuinely distressed, traumatised and upset Senator Reynolds.
Not to mention her respected chief of staff Fiona Brown who was stuck in the middle. Both women say it had far-reaching consequences.
But does it follow that Senator Reynolds is “vindicated” and universally praised in Justice Lee’s findings?
In my opinion, that is a far more complex question.
It’s also important to remember from the outset that Senator Reynolds was not a witness to the defamation trial.
Unlike her chief of staff Fiona Brown, who did give evidence and was expressly praised by the judge, Senator Reynolds he did not give evidence in the defamation case. She was not cross examined.
And yet, one of the striking moments in the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann was always the contradiction in the evidence of former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff.
Both women were asked when they first became aware of a potential sexual element after Brittany Higgins was found naked in a ministerial office.
They gave two different stories.
Remember, the Morrison Government was quick on the day that Ms Higgins allegations emerged to admit it was a mistake to hold an employment meeting with Ms Higgins in the room where the incident allegedly occurred.
During the criminal trial in November, 2022, Senator Linda Reynolds said that she was never told by her chief of staff Fiona Brown that Brittany Higgins had disclosed “I remember him on top of me” before that meeting.
Had she known she wouldn’t have had the meeting there.
“I am suggesting to you that you were aware that Ms Higgins had made an allegation about Mr Lehrmann being on top of her at this stage?,‘’ DPP Shane Drumgold challenged her in cross examination.
“I was not,‘’ Senator Reynolds replied.
But in a statement to news.com.au in August 2023, Senator Reynolds revealed for the first time that she now accepts that her chief of staff Fiona Brown‘s evidence at the trial was correct and she did inform her of the alarming comment before meeting with the young staffer.
The revelation emerged after Senator Reynolds gave a different answer on the Spotlight program, a fact that went unremarked during the television special.
Senator Reynolds stressed that her evidence was to the best of her recollection at the time but without the benefit of speaking to her former chief of staff Fiona Brown.
“Since the trial, Senator Reynolds has had the opportunity to discuss the matter with Ms Brown, which has prompted our client’s recall of further information,‘’ Senator Reynolds’ legal firm Bennett said in a statement.
In other words, Fiona Brown’s recollection was correct and hers was wrong, a reminder of the fallibility of human memory of stressful events years after the event.
The issue of the cover up narrative as Justice Lee described it arose in relation to the credibility of Ms Higgins as a witness and the conduct of Channel 10 as reasonable. It was not a central issue in the case.
But the other issue to emerge in Fiona Brown’s harrowing account was her candid discussion of how Linda Reynolds wanted her to report the rape regardless of whether Ms Higgins agreed to this.
In other words, far from trying to cover up an alleged rape she was desperate to report it.
This is what the judge had to say.
“What does not reflect caution was standing up to her Minister and the Chief of Staff of another Minister when Ms Brown thought they were intent on protecting their own interests at the expense of allowing a young woman to make her own decision as to whether she would involve the police – even at some risk to her professional career,’’ Justice Lee said.
“This showed integrity in resisting pressure she subjectively considered inappropriate and evinced a concern for the autonomy and welfare of Ms Higgins.
“In these circumstances, to be later vilified as an unfeeling apparatchik willing to throw up roadblocks in covering up criminal conduct at the behest of one’s political overlords must be worse than galling.”
Meanwhile, Peter Dutton had some gratuitous advice for Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz suggesting, although not naming them, they might want to consider settling.
“I would have thought off the back of the judgement yesterday, people would be looking to settle the matter against Linda Reynolds and issuing a full apology to her for the way in which her reputation has been tarnished,” he said.
In other words, the Liberal senator wants compensation.
Potentially, this will involve to recouping some of the money that Higgins was paid by taxpayers over how she claims the government mishandled her employment and her rape allegation.
But instead of refunding it to taxpayers, it would be paid to Senator Reynolds legal team over a defamation claim.
It’s a strange outcome for the Liberal leader to hand out advice to litigants about.
In the end, Bruce Lehrmann demanded his own rape trial and got it.
As is customary, the usual suspects have rushed to adopt only the parts of the 324-page tome that fits their narrative.
Originally published as What Justice Lee has to say about ‘vindicated’ Linda Reynolds | Samantha Maiden
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