Linda Reynolds expressed fury over a black and white Carla Zampatti jacket (valued at about $1,000) that Brittany Higgins took from her office the morning after her rape and never returned.
Ms Higgins was raped by her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann on a sofa in Senator Reynolds’ office in Parliament House in the early hours of 23 March 2019.
Security footage showed her arriving on Capitol Hill that night wearing only a white sheath dress and heels, but footage captured the next day showed her leaving the building in the designer coat.
The former Liberal staffer previously told a court she had wanted to cover herself up after her assault, so found the coat in a charity box in Ms Reynolds’ office and put it on.
Ms Reynolds, who is now suing Ms Higgins for defamation in the Western Australian Supreme Court, maintained there was no charity box in her office and claimed the jacket was taken from her personal wardrobe.
During cross-examination this week, Ms Reynolds revealed she thought she had lost the jacket until Lehrmann’s barrister, Steven Whybrow SC, told her three years later that Ms Higgins had taken it.
She became enraged and texted Mr Whybrow late at night about Ms Higgins’s wardrobe choices, admitting in court that it was “mean-spirited” but frustration was not something she could control at the time.
Daily Mail Australia has now obtained a photo of Ms Reynolds wearing the designer jacket at an event in Rockingham, Western Australia, in 2017, about two years before Ms Higgins stole it from her office.
Linda Reynolds is seen wearing her Carla Zampatti jacket in 2017, two years before Brittany Higgins stole it from her.
Brittany Higgins is photographed leaving Parliament wearing Mrs Reynolds’ designer jacket
Ms Reynolds was also seen addressing a room full of local business leaders at the same event.
The jacket was mentioned twice in court on Thursday: once when Reynolds was asked about an interview he did with Liam Bartlett on Channel Seven’s Spotlight programme last August.
Ms Higgins’ barrister, Rachael Young SC, suggested Ms Reynolds take the jacket to Mr Bartlett because she “wanted to tell him that she had stolen his jacket”.
Ms. Reynolds replied, “Well, that’s correct because I didn’t get it back.”
After that, the situation was dubbed the “stolen” jacket.
The issue arose again later that afternoon when Ms Reynolds was questioned about WhatsApp messages she sent to Mr Whybrow at 11.12pm on 6 October 2022, the day Ms Higgins gave evidence at Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
Ms. Higgins wore a beige embroidered skirt suit valued at about $750, the same color and design that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, wore during a visit to the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in London earlier that year.
The senator told the court she was frustrated that Ms Higgins was “mimicking” the duchess at the rape trial because she was “still upset” about her Carla Zampatti jacket.
Brittany Higgins is pictured wearing a beige embroidered skirt suit outside the ACT Supreme Court in October 2022
Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pictured wearing the same skirt suit in April 2022.
Ms Young asked: “When you saw her in a £400 suit, did you feel upset?”
Ms. Reynolds agreed.
Mrs. Young asked, ‘Didn’t you think I had a right to wear such a nice outfit?’
Ms Reynolds said that was not the case, and that she was partly upset because Ms Higgins had “made a fuss” about the clothes she wore, often using the colour white as a symbol of events.
“It bothered me because it was the connection with my coat and the image of her arriving… she can wear whatever she wants… but what bothered me was that I perceived her as a Kate Middleton knock-off,” she said.
“It doesn’t make much sense, but it bothered me.”
Ms. Young noted that people who attend court typically wear suits.
Ms Reynolds agreed, but said she was only thinking about her own coat when she sent the messages.
“I felt upset because my jacket was stolen and I was sensitive to the way he dressed,” she said.
Ms Reynolds said she would not have minded if Ms Higgins had explained afterwards that she took the jacket because she was uncomfortable or cold.
She said the problem was that the jacket disappeared without her knowledge and was never returned.
In April, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found on a balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
He maintains his innocence and has appealed the findings.