David Sharaz is facing financial ruin after a judge ordered him to pay Linda Reynolds’ legal costs, along with damages and interest, after she agreed to settle the defamation case against him.
Senator Reynolds launched two defamation proceedings in the Washington Supreme Court against Sharaz and his fiancée, Brittany Higgins, for social media posts published in 2022 and 2023 that she said damaged her reputation.
Sharaz announced in April that she would withdraw from the court battle because she could not afford to finance the process, while the liberal senator remortgaged her house to pay for the case.
On Friday, Judge Paul Tottle ordered that Sharaz be prevented from making social media posts similar to those that had allegedly damaged Senator Reynolds’ reputation.
Daily Mail Australia can also reveal that Mr Sharaz has been ordered to pay damages to Ms Reynolds, along with interest at three per cent per annum from the date the social media posts were written to the date of the sentence or until payment.
David Sharaz (pictured in Perth in March) is ordered to cover Senator Reynolds’ legal fees.
Linda Reynolds is pictured outside court on Tuesday, with her lawyer Martin Bennett.
He was also ordered to pay Ms Reynolds’ costs for pursuing the case against him, which will be determined at the conclusion of his case against Ms Higgins.
The senator will have until June 4 to submit a request for additional costs.
At Friday’s hearing, Judge Tottle also allowed Ms Higgins’ defense team more time to comply with a request to accommodate her June 1 wedding.
Daily Mail Australia revealed the wedding will take place in June at The Valley Estate, a $20 million luxury venue on the Gold Coast.
Sharaz, who has been out of work since early 2023, attempted to resolve his matter, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
In the middle of the court process on April 30, he posted a statement on social media revealing that he had resolved his own matter and urged Senator Reynolds to drop the matter against Ms Higgins.
Outside court after the hearing, Ms Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett expressed confusion over Sharaz’s attorney Jason MacLaurin’s statement that his client had limited financial means.
Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz appear at an awards ceremony in December
David Sharaz issued a statement during the court proceedings (pictured)
Mr Bennett said: ‘He lives in a castle in France. He does not have a job and has a prosecutor and a junior lawyer, two lawyers representing him.
Sharaz and Higgins moved to France in December, about a year after the Commonwealth awarded her $2.4 million in compensation for the way her rape allegations were handled in 2019.
“If he is poor, as he claims in France, he will go bankrupt,” Mr Bennett said.
“You will need to ask your bankruptcy trustee if you can live abroad or travel abroad – you cannot do this as a matter of right if you are bankrupt in Australia.”
His house in Lunas, near Bordeaux in the south of France, is believed to have cost around $600,000.
Ms Reynolds’ legal team submitted a request to see documents relating to Ms Higgins’ trust fund, which was set up in February last year after she received her Commonwealth settlement.
Senator Reynolds wants to know who the administrator is and who to sue if Ms. Higgins cannot pay damages arising from the yet-to-be-determined defamation case.
David Sharaz and Brittany Higgins bought a house in France in December (pictured)
The senator is suing Ms Higgins over a series of social media posts which she says damaged her reputation by implying that she pressured the former staffer not to proceed with a police report over her rape allegations in 2019.
At the time, Ms Higgins was a junior Liberal staffer in Parliament, working for Ms Reynolds, who was Defense Industry Minister.
Reynolds has continually denied that she and her former chief of staff, Fiona Brown, tried to stop Higgins from going to the police about his assault and told him his job would be at stake if he tried.
In December 2022, the Commonwealth awarded Ms Higgins $2.4 million in compensation.
In her $2.4 million settlement agreement with the Commonwealth, there were a number of allegations against Ms Reynolds that were not proven in court, and the senator was denied the opportunity to defend herself in the mediation room.
In April, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found, on a balance of probabilities, that Brittany Higgins was raped by her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Ms Reynolds’ office in Parliament House in March 2019.
However, he also discovered that Ms. Higgins made a series of false statements in her $2.4 million settlement deed; Specifically, she found that Ms. Reynolds and Ms. Brown did not attempt to cover up the rape.
The defamation hearing is scheduled to begin on July 24.
