Brittany Higgins told journalist who broke alleged rape story Linda Reynolds ‘hated’ her, court hears
Brittany Higgins felt toxic and told the journalist who broke the story about her alleged rape in Parliament House that Senator Linda Reynolds hated her.
The senator is suing Higgins, her former staffer – who is defending the claim – over a series of social media posts containing alleged mistruths that she believes damaged her reputation.
Excerpts of the journalist Samantha Maiden’s interview with Higgins for her 2021 article were played to the Perth defamation trial on Wednesday, as Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, wrapped up his case.
“She just avoided me. Avoided being in photos with me, I was toxic. She hated me,” Higgins told Maiden during the recorded interview.
“She worked her entire life to finally [become the defence minister] and I was like, in her first two weeks … some little twit she doesn’t know who gets assaulted in her office and she hates it, she hated me.”
Higgins also spoke to Maiden about a meeting she had with Reynolds and her then chief of staff Fiona Brown in the days after she was allegedly raped in 2019 by Bruce Lehrmann in Reynolds’ office.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct. The charge against him was dropped after a second trial was abandoned due to fears about Higgins’ health.
As part of Lehrmann’s failed defamation trial against Network Ten and
Lisa Wilkinson, a federal court in April found that, on the balance of probabilities, he raped Higgins. Lehrmann is appealing against the defamation verdict in his case.
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“[Reynolds’] standard lines about how she felt ill and ‘I’m horrified’ … then it kind of turned to … ‘as a woman this is what we go through’ and she said ‘if you choose to go to the police we will support you in that process but we just need to know ahead of time’,” Higgins said in her interview with Maiden.
“She was actually quite nice, like her and Fiona … I didn’t feel like it was like a fair conversation … I was the very junior staffer and … she didn’t know me and she didn’t like me and I was just some problem for her.”
Higgins told the reporter she believed the meeting was the senator “ticking a box”.
“I felt like they had to have this conversation with me to be able to say on record that ‘we told her she could go to the police’ but as soon as Linda Reynolds had that meeting she never brought it up with me again,” she said.
Higgins told Maiden the “weirdest part was when Linda decided to finally talk to me about the incident, she brought me back into her ministerial office”.
“That was the first time I did go back there. So I was sitting having this meeting about my choices, about what had just happened to me … I’m sure she was saying very many lovely words, but all I knew was the couch, and I was there by myself with Fiona and Linda and the couch,” Higgins said.
“I thought maybe they just hadn’t considered it.”
Asked why the article was published during a parliamentary sitting week, Maiden said Higgins wanted it to have an “impact”.
“She gave me the impression that her motivation was altruistic. She wanted to achieve reform of the parliamentary workplace … was anxious and concerned that it would be a one-day wonder,” Maiden said, giving evidence via an audio-visual link flanked by three lawyers.
Messages from Higgins’ husband, David Sharaz, to Maiden before the interview and after the story was published were read to the supreme court of Western Australia.
“She’s going to come out with the story and it’s going to be tough. It’s also going to be big,” he wrote in one.
“She had a Me Too incident and the party covered it up. Please keep that between us,” Sharaz said in another.
“She’s drafting a plan for you.”
After the story broke, Sharaz messaged: “It’s a weird story. Journalism hat on. What a f***ing scoop.”
Asked if Higgins had ever said she wanted to “bring down the Morrison government” or Reynolds, Maiden said no.
The trial continues on Thursday with evidence from the former Australian federal police deputy commissioner Leanne Close.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html