Brittany Higgins ‘arrogantly’ tried to claim she was the person most hurt by his rape allegation in her Parliament and used her own trauma as a ‘blanket excuse’ for the ‘litanies of lies’ she told- o, said a court in Washington. hearing.
In an explosive final submission to the high-stakes defamation proceedings, Senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett sought to gut Ms Higgins’ defense of the case, painting her as a deliberate liar who tried to ruin her former boss’s career and to bring down the Morrison government. .
“That is the truth of Mrs. Higgins, not the truth,” he said.
Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins over three social media posts from 2023 which he claims accused her of mishandling the alleged rape and damaged her physical and mental health.
Ms Higgins did not testify at the trial for medical reasons, but Mr Bennett sought to overturn that decision.
“Ms Higgins arrogantly, from the sanctity of France, claims the status of the person most seriously affected by this matter and trivialises the injury to others,” Mr Bennett told the court.
“We never sought to trivialize the injury, the harm that this would cause to Ms. Higgins, as opposed to trivializing the injury to Senator Reynolds.”
However, the senator could not have done more to help Ms Higgins following the rape, Mr Bennett said.
“The evidence will show that instead of harassing her or challenging the veracity of her allegations of rape, Senator Reynolds, at great cost to herself personally, both physically and mentally, in an act that we would describe as an extraordinary moral courage, he kept his promise. let’s—let’s never attack Miss Higgins for her obvious lies.”
“She did everything she could to ensure that Ms Higgins’ principle and the most significant allegation that she was violated by [Bruce] Lehrmann could be properly and fully investigated and prosecuted for a period of nearly two years.”
Brittany Higgins did not testify at the trial for medical reasons, her attorney said. (AAP: Dean Lewins)
The only exception to this, he said, was when he called Ms Higgins a “lying cow” in front of staff in March 2021 while watching the young woman’s interview on Channel 10’s The Project.
Ms Higgins accused Senator Reynolds of not supporting her during the interview and said she felt forced to choose between reporting the rape or keeping her job.
That interview, Mr Bennett said, was “the expression of visceral hatred” by Ms Higgins and was not based on the truth.
Although Mr Lehrmann has always denied raping Ms Higgins, he was found to have done so in civil proceedings in federal court earlier this year.
He is appealing this decision.
“Jumping on a Bandwagon”
Mr Bennett also questioned a statement sent to media outlets in 2021, which Ms Higgins’ barrister, Rachael Young SC, cited in her closing statement.
In the statement, Ms Young said Ms Higgins had spoken about her desire to bring about sustainable workplace reform in Parliament by speaking about her experiences and trying to ensure no one else experienced the same trauma.
But Mr Bennett sought to cast doubt on the document’s authenticity, telling the court that not Ms Higgins, but Sky News reporter Peta Credlin and Ms Higgins’ partner David Sharaz, were the real authors.
“It’s the voice of people jumping on a bandwagon,” Mr Bennett said.
Ms Young, however, said it was entirely normal for a press statement to go through several drafts before a final version was agreed upon, and the words were Ms Higgins’s.
Martin Bennett says the texts show Ms Higgins had a good time on the campaign trail. (ABC News: Nic Perpitch)
Mr Bennett also said Ms Higgins’ account of her time in Perth in the weeks after she was raped, in which she told reporters she was isolated in a Perth hotel room and shunned by Senator Reynolds, could not be believed.
He said numerous text messages from Ms Higgins to her then-boyfriend Ben Dillaway showed she was having a great time in Perth, attending campaign events, drinking in local pubs and attending a birthday dinner ‘amazing’ birth for Senator Reynolds at a luxury hotel.
Ms Young said Ms Higgins looking happy in photographs and at campaign events did not mean she was not in pain, but Mr Bennett rejected that claim.
“This is a woman who is meant to be traumatized and [hiding her] tears behind the smile,” he said, showing court texts in which she spoke of enjoying her time in Perth and described her as a “workaholic”.
To claim she was in fact traumatized and isolated was an “absurd statement of position by Miss Higgins”, Mr Bennett said.
Senator Reynolds made a surprise appearance in court late on Tuesday morning to hear the opening of Mr Bennett’s closing statements.
She has not appeared in the case since she finished her five days of testimony about three weeks ago.
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