LIVE blog of Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial against Brittany Higgins

Linda Reynolds will draw on key photographs of Brittany Higgins campaigning with her in Perth during the 2019 federal election.

Ms Higgins has long maintained that Senator Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown did little to support her following her rape in 2019.

He said so in his $2.4 million settlement agreement with the Commonwealth in December 2022, which was riddled with allegations against his former bosses.

According to the settlement application, which was released last year by the Federal Court, Ms Higgins told Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown she had been raped and they told her to put it behind her.

“Ms. Brown made it clear by her words and behavior that the events of March 22 and 23, 2019, needed to be put aside and that (Ms. Higgins) needed to remain silent about the sexual assault in order to keep her job and career,” the filing said.

‘In that context, (Ms Higgins) felt she had no choice but to drop her sexual assault complaint to the AFP.’

She claimed Ms Brown did not ask her if she wanted to report the incident to the police or if she needed legal advice.

Ms Higgins has also long believed she was given an ultimatum after disclosing her allegations to Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown: she could either go with the minister to Perth and help campaign for the next election, or she could return home to the Gold Coast and leave Canberra for good.

Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown previously told a court they did not give her an “ultimatum” but she had the option of going to Perth, so she did.

According to the affidavit, Ms Higgins “was required to work most of the time from her own hotel room, seven days a week for six weeks.” She had never before made that claim in court.

(Pictured below: Linda Reynolds giving a speech during the 2019 federal election. Brittany Higgins is sitting in the front row, dressed in black.)

However, new photos released by the Supreme Court of Western Australia show Ms Higgins handing out leaflets on the street, smiling with colleagues and clapping during speeches while wearing a blue Liberal polo shirt.

Ms Higgins can be seen posing for photos with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and watching Ms Reynolds deliver a speech after the Coalition won the election.

In court on Friday, Ms Reynolds’s barrister Martin Bennett said Mr Bennett claimed evidence showed how Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz falsely created a narrative that there was no support following her rape.

“The fact that she had been raped was traumatic and horrific, but something else was needed to attract attention, to attract media interest, to attract promotion for Ms Higgins, so she turned it into a political sex scandal,” he told the court.

“That was the fiction that needed a villain and chose Linda Reynolds for that role.”

The document also says Ms Reynolds did not interact with her at all during the election campaign, but a photograph submitted to two courts showed Ms Higgins sitting next to Ms Reynolds at her birthday party in Perth.

In that photo, she was wearing the same dress she was raped in.

(Pictured below: Then Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivering a speech during the 2019 federal election. Brittany Higgins is seated in the back row, far left.)