Senator’s lawyer had tried to help accused rapist Lehrmann during criminal trial
Senator Linda Reynolds tried to help Bruce Lehrmann during his criminal trial for allegedly raping Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, a defamation trial has been told.
Bruce Lehrmann arrives at the Toowoomba Magistrates Court. (AAP Image/Jono Searle)
The senator is suing her former staffer Ms Higgins – who is defending the claim – over social media posts the ex-defence minister believes damaged her reputation.
Ms Higgins’ lawyer told a Perth court the senator communicated with Mr Lehrmann’s defence Steve Whybrow before and during his aborted criminal trial.
“What those 21 messages show is the senator’s partisan attitude in favour of the accused,” she told the Western Australian Supreme Court on Monday during her closing submissions.
Ms Young said Senator Reynolds gave Mr Whybrow suggestions for potential witnesses and phone numbers to contact them.
“They engaged in fairly informal conversation, including Mr Whybrow’s reference to ‘sh**s going to get real soon’ and ‘karma comes to those who wait’,” she said.
Ms Young said the senator sent Mr Whybrow a photographic comparison between Ms Higgins and the Princess of Wales.
“On her own admission, this was a bit catty and intemperate and as she confessed when I tried to explore the reasons for this message or what this message meant, she accepted it doesn’t make great rational sense,” she said.
“What it does demonstrate, though, is the senator got comfortable enough with Mr Whybrow to display that annoyance to him about Ms Higgins’ outfit.”
Ms Young said the senator was also signalling to Mr Whybrow she might have other information that could help Mr Lehrmann.
“The senator’s text can be only sensibly described as attempting to assist the accused,” she said, explaining Ms Higgins’ justification and truth defence for an Instagram story in July 2023 that alleged the senator engaged in questionable conduct during Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
Ms Young said it amounted to questionable conduct “because the senator was at pains to say she had a position of neutrality” and “didn’t pick sides between her two former employees at the time of the criminal trial”.
Mr Lehrmann denies raping Ms Higgins in Senator Reynolds’ ministerial suite in 2019 and his criminal trial in October 2022 was derailed by juror misconduct.
The defamation trial continues on Tuesday with Ms Young continuing closing submissions on behalf of Ms Higgins.
