Linda Reynolds’ defamation case against her former employee Brittany Higgins in the Supreme Court of Western Australia will continue from 10.30am local time (12.30pm AEST).
The case hinges on social media posts Ms Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, wrote in 2022 and 2023 that the Liberal senator says damaged his reputation.
In April, a Federal Court judge found that Higgins was likely raped by her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament in March 2019. The rape took place on a sofa inside Reynolds’ office.
Ms Higgins has long maintained that Ms Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown did not support her after her assault. Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown have maintained that they did.
Social media posts criticised Ms Reynolds’ handling of the rape allegations.
The trial began on Friday and is expected to last four weeks.
Ms Reynolds began her keynote address on Monday, which will continue until about 11.30am local time.
Following this, Ms Higgins’ barrister Rachael Young SC will begin cross-examination.
On Tuesday, Ms Reynolds told the court she felt threatened by Ms Higgins’ now-husband, David Sharaz, when he wrote allegedly defamatory posts about her online.
Mr Sharaz posted a series of posts about Ms Reynolds between 2022 and 2023, which the senator said “gave her chills” because she felt she was being harassed.
Specifically, she referred to a 2022 post in which Sharaz had posted a screenshot of a press release on the senator’s website titled ‘Empowering Women.’
In the post he wrote: “I see you Linda.”
In court on Tuesday, Ms Reynolds said he was “creepy and threatening”.
“When someone says that – I see you, Linda – in addition to the harassing nature of the comment on these posts, saying something like that is horrible and it upset me and scared me a little.”
“It’s a subtle reminder: I’m watching you and it was based on the lies they had been spreading for some time.”
Ms Reynolds also spoke through tears as she described the days and weeks after she was accused of covering up Ms Higgins’ rape.
The Liberal senator has repeatedly denied trying to cover up Ms Higgins’ rape.
When Ms Higgins first made the rape allegations public in 2021, Ms Reynolds was questioned about them during Question Time but ruled that the rape matter was criminal and should not be pursued in Parliament.
“There are no words to describe what it was like to be accused of covering up the rape of a young woman in my office in a way I knew was not true,” she told the court.
“It was almost impossible for me to mentally process it and suddenly, in a few days, I went from being a senator and minister who was doing her job, and doing it well, to being vilified nationally as someone capable of doing something so despicable.”
She said her peers looked at her differently, with some distancing themselves from her because they wondered if she had really tried to cover up the rape.
“I have said it time and time again: this is not a matter for Parliament to hear – it is a criminal matter and it is for Brittany to tell the story,” he told the court.
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