Brittany Higgins's legal team rejects claims Linda Reynolds's former staffer chose the senator to be the 'villain' in her story of a political cover up.
Brittany Higgins 's legal team has rejected claims the former staffer and her partner chose Senator Linda Reynolds to be the "villain" in their "fairytale" story of a political cover up.
In his opening address on Friday, Senator Reynolds's lawyer Martin Bennett claimed Ms Higgins and her partner David SharazBut today Ms Young said that suggestion had caused Ms Higgins further trauma, and sought to "trivialise" the reason Ms Higgins spoke out about her rape and the workplace culture in Parliament House.
"We were not the people to counsel her on this, we were not the right people to investigate this," she said. Ms Young said Senator Reynolds did not provide adequate support for Ms Higgins in the aftermath of her rape, meeting her only once to discuss what happened during that April 1 meeting more than a week after the assault.
Despite appearing in photos tendered to the court by Mr Bennett that showed her smiling while campaigning, "behind the scenes, her distress was evident" Ms Young said, including in text messages sent to her then boyfriend Ben Dillaway."I'm not sure why but I just feel super angry at the moment. Probably misdirected and should be aimed at Bruce but I'm so pissed at the people in the party," she wrote in the text message.
"A rape complainant's former boss and minister, a leading woman in the Liberal party … had just accused a 24-year-old rape complainant of being a lying cow," Ms Young told the court.She said Senator Reynolds later "tried to make a silk purse out of sow's ear by apologising" although this was not done until a fortnight later, after she had been issued with a concerns notice and widely criticised in the media.
Perth News Brittany Higgins Linda Reynolds Defamation Trial David Sharaz Lisa Wilkinson News Wa News Perth Defamation Supreme Court Bruce Lerhmann Perth Wa Higgins Reynolds Trial Wa Court
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