Linda Reynolds v Brittany Higgins: total war

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I'm satisfied that it is more likely than not that mister Lehman's state of mind was such that he was so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Miss higgins consent and hence where he was sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented.

Well, that was then. Now we're living through a trial that makes Lehman versus Ten look like a fairly minor skirmish. Reynolds versus Higgins is total war, shock and awe. There are so many battlefronts it's hard to keep up. The action is raging inside court and out, and especially in

Wanting no words to adequately describe what it is like being accused of covering up the rape of a young woman in my office in a way I knew was not true.

The case is being heard in the West Australian Supreme Court and we're using voice actors to bring you the words spoken in court. First up, Linda Reynolds.

I found it almost impossible to process mentally. All of a sudden, in the space of a couple of days, I had gone from a senator and a minister doing her job and doing it well, to being nationally vilified as someone who would do something so despicable.

Reynolds is suing over tweets and Instagram stories by Higgins and her husband David Sharraz made in twenty twenty three. She says they were published as part of a plan by Higgins and Charaz, a conspiracy to inflict immediate political damage upon Reynolds and the former Morrison government. We've used voice actors to bring you some of those posts.

This is from a current Australian senator who continues to harass me through the media and in the Parliament instead of solving the problem. There are people who would prefer to just silence victims.

Linda Reynolds says the posts imputed that she was a hypocrite who didn't care about women's equality and who had deliberately minimized Higgins's account of rape, something Reynold says she'd never do.

They're incredibly hurtful. They are making allegations I know are not true.

She said. On one occasion, Charaz posted I see you.

When someone says Linda, I see you, Apart from a stalky nature of saying something like that, it's that subtle reminder of the lies they had been propagating for a long time.

All this happened two years after Higgins first told her story of being raped on the couch in Reynolds's office to Tend's TV show The Project and to news dot com You Tonight. Claims of rape roadblocks to a police investigation and a young woman forced to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice. Higgins said in her Project interview that Reynolds and her then chief of staff, Fiona Brown had failed to take proper care of her.

I would try and raise it, and I would try and bring it up.

Then it was always it always sort of came back to sort of being a mere issue, and it said you can't deal with it, then you can leave.

Both Reynolds and Fiona Brown vehemently denied Higgins's claims in a Lamban defamation trial. Brown said she had in fact walked Higgins down to the police office within Parliament House, but had respected Higgins's wishes not to pursue a police complaint at the time. Brown also gave evidence that when Reynolds heard about Higgins's allegation, she insisted Brown go to police,

As we will see when examined properly and without partiality, the cover up allegation was subjectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies. Trying to particularize it during the evidence was like trying to grab a column of smoke.

Remember, Linda Reynolds brought this case to court. There have been months of failed attempts to mediate and at one point David Cheraz said he was out of money and out of energy to defend it. What Reynolds has wanted all along is an apology after the verdict in a Lamban defamation trial, Higgins issued this.

Senator Reynolds and Fiona Brown have also been hurt, and for that, I am also sorry. My perceptions and feelings about what happened in the days and weeks after my rape are different from theirs. I deeply regret that we have not yet found common ground. Hope we can resolve our differences with a better understanding of each other's experience.

It didn't help. Bruz Laman is appealing the finding in the earlier trial, and he's always denied raping Brittany Higgins. On Friday, the Reynolds versus Higgins trial opened with Reynolds's barrister, Martin bennettesc indicating this trial was going to be big.

Miss Higgins reconstructed in her mind a series of events used to damnify my client. Every fairy tale needs a villain. Miss Higgins and her then partner and now husband, mister Schiraz, cast Senator Reynolds in that role for their fictional story of a cover up of the rape. The fact she had been raped was traumatic and terrible, but it needed something more to attract the attention, to attract media interest, to attract the promotion of miss Higgins. So she made

Bennett reference to photographs of Higgins after the alleged rape in twenty nineteen, smiling and laughing on the campaign trail in WA, not sitting alone in her room, ostracized and isolated, as she'd claimed. He also quoted texts sent by Higgins to her then boyfriend indicating she was enjoying her time in WA.

My day has been awesome, mostly spent poolside. It's been really nice, liking the WA office. I can't wait for the ANZAC Day festivities.

What became clear this week is that the attacks on Reynolds by Higgins up until now are nothing compared to what's coming. In her opening address to the court, Higgins's barrister, Rachel Young sc demonstrated Higgins is now going to attempt to prove the truth of what she says is Reynold's misconduct in court where she has absolute privilege to say what she thinks without the threat of future defamation action. Miss Higgins's truth, her truth as to the rape is

The Senator, through her oral and written opening, to suggest it may be so is misplaced, harassing and retraumatizing.

Young said Higgins's case would show that Reynold's handling of the matter had been inadequate.

Miss Higgins was a junior employee without job security who had been raped at work. The power discrepancy is palpable.

And Young question the very basis of Reynold's claim.

The focus of her case relies upon a novel extension of the law of aggravated damages and taught conspiracy. The conspiracy, was later added by the Senator, is wrong and should not be found.

Coming up the dramatic out of courts scuffles going on all at the same time. That's after the break. In recent days, Linda Reynolds has given emotional evidence under questioning from her own barrister. She described being questioned about Higgins in Parliament in twenty nineteen after Higgins went public.

I was standing there in incredible pain. I'd stood up every single day, I'd faced down the questions. I just couldn't go on. I couldn't read what was on the piece of paper. I just started sobbing uncontrollably. I was literally, completely and utterly incoherent.

On Tuesday, sheked the twenty twenty two death of Senator Kimberly Kitching, a labor politician who died of a heart attack. Reynolds said that before she died, Kitching had told her Labor was coming to get Reynolds over Higgins's allegations.

I was completely incredulous. I said to her, why would anybody reponize such an incident. I still can't find the words to describe. Even for Labor, and they pulled some pretty nasty stunts, but this I actually found it hard to believe.

Reynolds said after the incident with Lemon, she worked closely with Higgins in WA where Higgins was helping the Liberal campaign.

I thanked her for her great work. I was genuinely impressed with her. She had thrown herself into the campaign. She genuinely loved campaigning, and she was really good. She had stepped up.

Reynold said. She admitted calling Higgins a lying cow. While watching the project's story on TV, she said though that wasn't a claim Higgins was lying about the rape, she meant that Higgins was lying about Reynold's response.

I was incredibly angry. I was incredibly hurt. She probably didn't even realize this, but she couldn't have picked a worse issue to bring me down. It's such an abhorrent thing to say to any woman that you've mistreated the very pallagation, and that you have not only done that, but you have also covered it up.

Brittaney Higgins is not in Perth for this trial yet the court has heard. She's in France, where she and Schiraz bought and then sold of property in a small village. On Monday, she posted this pertinent reading with a screenshot of a book title, how Many More Women, How the Law Silences Women. Reynolds said this about the post, It's.

Just validated why I'm taking these proceedings, because she will not stop, and even during this trial, she will not stop.

Then a skirmish broke out about a crowdfunding page started for Higgins by another famous advocate for survivors of sexual assault, Saxon Mullins. The fundraising page says this.

Many hoped the judgment would mark the end of this legal saga and Brittany would be free to move on and heal in private. However, Brittany is now being sued for defamation by a former boss Bruce Lehman, who denies the rape, is also appealing Justice Lee's decision. Brittany, who is pregnant, needs our support now more than ever.

As soon as court resumed, Martin Bennett, the lawyer for Linda Reynolds, told the judge this was an attempt.

To capture some public opinion.

Rachel Young, Higgins's barrister, said it was beyond any stretch of the imagination that the fundraising page was connected to Higgins and Scharraz's alleged conspiracy to defame the Senator. The judge, just as Paul Tottle, granted a subpoena which means Higgins team has to hand over any communications about that page. Linda Reynolds mentioned in court on Wednesday another social post by Higgins in which she.

Wrote, I won't stay silent so you can stay comfortable.

Reynolds said this, I can assure you taking these proceedings putting my house on the line, everything that I've worked for for forty years, putting everything on the line to be able to be here today and tell the truth that just took the cake. We're not doing this to stay comfortable.

Later in this trial, Brittney Higgins herself will give evidence. Her time in the witness box is set down for five full days, but before that, Higgins's barrister will cross examine Linda Reynolds. We've got live updates from the courtroom all day at Beaustralian dot com dot au. Join our subscribers to ensure you don't miss it being and come back to the front for updates