Linda Reynolds and Brittany Higgins defamation trial day three: Senator ‘creeped out’ by David Sharaz posts

Senator Linda Reynolds has detailed how the impact of Brittany Higgins’ airing her allegation of rape led to her almost collapsing on the floor of Parliament — and then being comforted by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

In a dramatic day of evidence in Ms Reynolds’ defamation claim against Ms Higgins, the Senator detailed her time working with Ms Higgins — and the traumatic time after she left her office.

That culminated in the airing of The Project interview in February 2021, which also contained allegations that Ms Higgins’ complaint had been mishandled and covered up within the halls of power.

“I felt sick, I felt angry, I felt hurt. At some point — I did utter in frustration and anger. I have no recollection — I know I was very frustrated at the lies, and what I knew to be lies,” Ms Reynolds said.

That referred to her saying the words “lying cow” as she watched Ms Higgins.

She said she later apologised to her staff — and eventually to Ms Higgins — over those words. But has also said they were not referring to Ms Higgins’ claim of rape.

“It was a complete media frenzy — my office was bombarded with media inquiries,” she said.

“There are actually no words to adequately describe what it was like being accused of covering up the rape of a young woman in my office.

“I found it almost impossible to process mentally.

“To being nationally vilified as someone who would do something so despicable — it became so overwhelming.”

She said that culminated in her virtually collapsing while in the Senate.

“I was increasingly distressed — I was in incredible heart pain. I couldn’t read … I stood up, I had faced down the questions and … I just couldn’t go on,” she said.

“I couldn’t read what was on the piece of paper. Everything was blurry. My knees started buckling, and I went out of the room.”

She said it ultimately left her sobbing uncontrollably, being comforted by the PM Scott Morrison.

“He just sat with me, he talked with me,” she said.

“He was incredibly compassionate — he had a conversation. How difficult it was for him — the difficulty it was causing for his girls.

“My heart pain started to settle, and I eventually stopped crying — and my staff had come to take me back to my office.”

Ms Reynolds said that near-collapse then became public knowledge.

“I had this humiliation of … collapsing in front of the nation, you know as the Defence minister of our nation,” she said.

“The dirty little secret in Parliament House is that you know, politicians are human beings as well. We don’t come in with a suit of armour to protect us from things that would impact on any human being.”

Ms Reynolds described how her career was affected, her health continued to suffer — including hospital admissions and diagnoses of her serious heart condition — and continuing pressure.

She said that included social media posts from Ms Higgins, and Mr Sharaz.

“They are incredibly hurtful, making allegations that I know are not true,” she said.

“To my mind, they use their Instagram posts and Facebook as a press release, because they will put out a tweet or Insta post — and the media run the story. What they have been said becomes a story published nationally.”

Ms Reynolds went on to describe some of Mr Sharaz’s posts as “creepy”, “threatening” and “stalky”, including one which stated: ‘I see you’.

“Saying something like that, it’s awful — I was upset, a bit creeped out,” she said.

“It is that subtle reminder of the lies they had been propagating for a long time since then.

“And he wants me to suffer for the rest of my life.”

In earlier evidence, Senator Linda Reynolds made the sensational claim that the death of Labor politician Kimberley Kitching was connected to her knowledge of Ms Higgins’ rape claim — and her decision not to tell senior Labor figures about it.

Senator Reynolds was asked about the moment in 2021 when she was told that Labor was aware of the incident in her office two years previously.

She told WA’s Supreme Court that moment came in the Senate chamber when Senator Kitching approached her and told her that Labor intended to “rain hell” upon her and the Liberal Party.

The topic they intended to use, according to the Senator, was the reported rape of Ms Higgins by her former staffer Bruce Lehrmann.

“I was completely incredulous — why would anybody weaponise such an incident?” Ms Reynolds said.

“I still can’t find the words to describe — even for Labor — and they have pulled some pretty nasty stunts. But this — I actually found it hard to believe.”

Ms Reynolds then told the court that Ms Kitching relayed to her that she had found out about the incident via an anonymous letter sent to her, alleging the incident was subsequently mishandled.

And she then handed that letter to the AFP.

“Penny Wong was incredibly angry with her because she had given the letter to the AFP, instead of her,” Ms Reynolds said.

“Because Labor could have weaponised it. Senator Kitching was genuinely angered and upset by what Penny Wong had said she was going to do.”

At this point in the evidence, Senator Reynolds said she felt tired and also complained she could feel her blood pressure rising, and asked if she could take a break.

“This is a particularly emotional point — as it led to Senator Kitching’s death,” she said, before being granted a break.

Senator Kitching died in 2022 from a heart attack. And it was later reported that before her death she had told a parliament-employed workplace trainer she was being bullied by Senate Labor colleagues.

Those mentioned in subsequent reports included the ALP’s Senate leadership — senators Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher.

They subsequently denied the allegations, calling the claims “untrue” and “hurtful”.

On her return to the witness box, Ms Reynolds was then questioned about her emotions when days later she read the article from Samantha Maiden containing Ms Higgins claim of rape — and of mistreatment by her boss

“Very. Very mixed emotions — I was angry at Brittany, but I was also angry at myself — and wondering how we had got it so wrong,” she said.

“What she was saying was that we got it completely wrong — but her recollections were so different to mine. Everything else she said I knew weren’t true — and what had I missed?

“Incredibly angry, incredibly hurt — and she probably didn’t realise this at the time …

“She could not have picked a worse issue to bring me down — it is such an abhorrent thing to say to any woman that you have mistreated your rape allegation. But also that you covered it up.”

Social media posts — including one calling for financial support for Higgins which has already drawn $20,000 in donations — have also punctuated the first week of the defamation claim being fought by her former boss Reynolds.

After Ms Higgins posted on Instagram from France as Ms Reynolds was beginning her evidence in Perth, she was chastised by the Senator’s lawyer Martin Bennett, who claimed the act was “extraordinarily inappropriate”.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Bennett flagged more online activity — including a post by Ms Higgins’ husband David Sharaz, who featured a photograph of the pair apparently on their way to Paris.

That was not an impromptu trip to the Olympics, but to get an affidavit signed and sworn as part of the ongoing trial.

Ms Higgins is due to give evidence in Perth in the trial at the end of this month.

Mr Bennett also called for a subpoena to be issued to Saxon Mullins, a sexual assault survivor advocate, and now the Director of Advocacy at an organisation called Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy.

In 2018, Ms Mullins appeared on the Four Corners episode “I am that girl”, where she lifted anonymity to tell the story of her alleged 2013 sexual assault behind a nightclub in Sydney.

On Monday, she posted a call for support for Ms Higgins, saying “Brittany, who is pregnant, needs our support now more than ever.”

“This fundraiser is to provide additional support for Brittany Higgins’ ongoing medical, counselling and legal costs.”

Since being posted, the fund has garnered more than $23,000 in donations.

But Mr Bennett said he now wanted a subpoena for communications between Ms Mullins, Ms Higgins, Mr Sharaz, her friend Emma Webster and lawyer Carmel Galati — so Ms Higgins may be quizzed about the post when she gives evidence.

Mr Bennett suggested the fundraiser may be “an attempt to attract followers to Miss Higgins”.

“And a suggestion that these proceedings are ultimately something where she’s the victim of an attempt to cover prevent her speaking about the rape allegation … which is not an issue in this case as I opened,” Mr Bennett said.

During her early evidence on Tuesday, Ms Reynolds detailed Ms Higgins’ time in Perth during the election campaign in 2019 — just weeks after she made her revelation of rape.

Ms Higgins has previously said the time in WA left her on the verge of a breakdown, claiming she had been ostracised and left alone for long periods.

Ms Reynolds and her legal team claim that is just wrong, showing a series of photographs of Ms Higgins on various campaign events, including alongside then PM Scott Morrison.

Asked about that campaign, Ms Reynolds said she recalled Ms Higgins “had thrown herself into the campaign” — and had thanked her during a pre-birthday dinner at Uma restaurant in Perth.

“It was a great evening because we had some great discussions, stories told about a collection of things that happened over course of the campaign,” Ms Reynolds said.

“The team had bonded really well. My Perth team and Steve Ciobo’s former staff came to Perth — and part of that is getting the team to click in.

“It was a good mix ... I could not have asked any more of them, worked their guts out.

“Brittany Higgins worked out every day on the pre-poll in Belmont. I went and sat next to her — and we had a great chat, and I was genuinely very impressed with her.

“She had thrown herself into the campaign, she clearly loved campaigning — she was really good. She had done a great job.”

In a dramatic end to Ms Reynolds’ first day in the witness box, it was revealed Ms Higgins continued to post on social media.

Mr Bennett told the court on Monday that Ms Higgins, who is in France, had posted on Instagram while her former boss was giving evidence.

“Ms Higgins thinks she can provide a social media running commentary on my client’s evidence,” he told the WA Supreme Court on Monday.

The post is a photo of a book titled How Many More Women? How the law silences women, along with the words: “Pertinent reading”.

Mr Bennett said the senator would submit an amended statement of claim on Tuesday to reflect the post.

“I would hope somebody would advise Ms Higgins to give up commentary,” he said.

Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young said it was a repost and had no bearing on the trial. Outside court, Mr Bennett said the post could aggravate any damages awarded to the senator.

Earlier, Senator Reynolds told the court she was angry when she learned about a “major security breach” at her ministerial office involving Bruce Lehrmann and Ms Higgins, who were intoxicated.

“I was a bit gobsmacked, I was then angry ... the stupidity of the staff to do that,” she said.

“I felt a bit sorry for her because it would have been a bit embarrassing to have woken up the next morning after having been asleep drunk in your boss’s office,” she said.

In the days following, Senator Reynolds met Ms Higgins in the same office she was allegedly raped in, which has since been used to illustrate her alleged mishandling of the rape.

“There was no allegation of rape and there was no indication of where when she said that ‘he was on top of me’ that it was actually in my office,” she said.

“So when we had the meeting, it seemed the logical place to do it, because it was the only private room that I had a meeting like that in.

“She did not say that there’d been any sexual assault, she did not say there’d been a crime but (then-chief of staff Fiona Brown) and I were both worried.”

Lehrmann denies sexually assaulting Ms Higgins. His criminal trial was aborted because of juror misconduct and Ms Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.

With AAP