Lawyers for Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds have made their closing submission in her defamation case against Brittany Higgins today, where they attacked the former staffer’s “litany of lies” and how she used her trauma as a “catch-all excuse”.
The high-profile defamation case between the senator and her former staffer is coming to its close, with each party’s lawyers making their closing statements before Justice Paul Tottle goes off to consider his verdict.
Reynolds has taken Higgins to a defamation trial at the Perth Supreme Court over posts that she made on social media in July 2023. The politician claims that the two Instagram Stories subjected her to “public hatred, scandal, odium and contempt” and damaged her reputation.
In the social media posts, Higgins publicly criticised Reynolds for mishandling her allegations of rape against a fellow staffer.
Brittany Higgins famously alleged she was sexually assaulted by Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann vehemently denies these allegations, and his criminal trial was discontinued in 2022 due to juror misconduct with no retrial. In 2024 a civil trial found that Lehrmann raped Higgins on the balance of probabilities, and he has appealed this verdict.
Though some experts have said Reynolds is “ridiculous” for initiating the defamation proceeding against the sexual assault advocate, as doing so will more likely tarnish her reputation than salvage it, the senator stands to gain everything from vindication to financial compensation if she wins the trial.
What did Linda Reynolds’ lawyers say about in the closing statement?
In his closing submission on Tuesday, Linda Reynolds’s lawyer Martin Bennett told the WA Court that Brittany Higgins is a liar who trivialises the hurt her words cause others.
“Ms Higgins arrogantly, from the sanctity of France, claims the status of the person most seriously affected by this matter and trivialises the hurt to others,” the lawyer said in court.
“We don’t adopt this claim from the moral high ground that Miss Higgins does. And what we say is it’s necessary to state — plainly and clearly in the context of these submissions — that Senator Reynolds … has never challenged in any respect the fact that Ms Higgins was raped.”
Bennett told the court that there was nothing further that could have been done to help Brittany Higgins in the aftermath of the assault, and that his client took her staffer’s allegations seriously, despite the “lies” from Higgins.
“We’ve never sought to trivialise the hurt, the damage that would cause to Miss Higgins, unlike her trivialisation of the hurt caused to Senator Reynolds,” he said.
“She did everything she could to ensure that Miss Higgins’s principle and most significant allegation that she had been raped by Lehrmann could be properly and fully investigated and prosecuted for a period of virtually two years.”
Bennett also attempted to cast doubt over the severity of the infamous “lying cow” comment made by Reynolds, by saying it was the only time the senator ever failed to support her staffer.
Justice Paul Tottle will retire on Wednesday to consider his verdict.
[Image: Getty]
The post Linda Reynolds’ Lawyer Says Brittany Higgins Used Her Trauma As ‘Catch-All Excuse’ For ‘Lies’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
