Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz created a fictional political cover-up and cast Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds as a villain in a bid to harm her, a defamation trial has been told.
Ms Higgins is being sued over a series of social media posts in 2022 and 2023 that the former defence minister says damaged her reputation as she pursues vindication for alleged mistruths.
Miss Higgins is using the defence of truth to fight Senator Reynold's defamation claim.
Lawyer Martin Bennett told the Western Australian Supreme Court that the evidence would reveal Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz cast Senator Reynolds as the villain in their "fictional story of political cover-up".
"Every fairytale needs a villain," he said on Friday during his opening submissions.
He said the fiction included allegations of ill-treatment, ostracism, bullying, harassment and threatening conduct.
"She was cast in … critical light and none of it was true," Mr Bennett said.
He noted that Senator Reynolds had never disputed Ms Higgins' rape allegation as he pointed to the former staffer's personal injury claim, for allegedly mishandling the incident, that the Commonwealth settled for $2.4 million.
"The claims made by Ms Higgins were false and Senator Reynolds was denied the appropriate venue, the appropriate time, the appropriate funding by the Commonwealth to defend the actions of herself and her staff," he said.
Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz created a detailed plan, which she recorded on her phone as "the cult of politics, the media lens of a political sex scandal, anatomy of a political sex scandal," Mr Bennett said.
"The fact she had been raped was traumatic and terrible but it needed something more to attract ... media interest ... so she made it a political sex scandal," he said.
The court was told the couple courted journalists Lisa Wilkinson on Network Ten's The Project and Samantha Maiden from News Corp and planned for the story's release during a parliamentary sitting week and the likely Liberal Party response.
The lawyer used a series of Ms Higgins' text messages with her then-boyfriend to rebut one of her work-injury claims that she was ostracised and spent weeks in a Perth hotel room working seven days a week during the 2019 election campaign.
"I'll be in the back of the PM's announcement today. This will be my 15 minutes of fame," he said, reading one that referred to Ms Higgins standing behind former prime minister Scott Morrison at a press conference.
Others detailed how Ms Higgins had toured Perth's sites, went to the beach, had a buffet dinner with friends and attended Senator Reynolds' birthday dinner.
Mr Bennett also explored the night Ms Higgins was allegedly raped in Parliament House and events in the weeks after as he focused his attention on Ms Higgins' defamation defence of truth.
He said Senator Reynolds reacted protectively towards Ms Higgins and initially wanted her to go to the Australian Federal Police.
"Ms Higgins couldn't remember," Mr Bennett said.
He detailed the support given to Ms Higgins and the Morrison government's discussions on the matter.
"Offensive and false," he said of the claim Ms Higgins was pressured after her alleged rape.
He said Ms Higgins' later claims to media that she wasn't supported were "made up" and "falsely attributed a callousness to Senator Reynolds that was wrong".
Mr Bennett said nothing justified Ms Higgins' version of events.
"It's a mishmash of overlay of things ... and this is overlay reflecting that in 2021 Ms Higgins reconstructed in her mind a sequence of events she used to damnify my client," he said.
Bruce Lehrmann has always denied sexually assaulting then-colleague Miss Higgins. His criminal trial was aborted because of juror misconduct and Ms Higgins' mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.'
The defamation trial continues.
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