A last-minute hearing has been scheduled for tomorrow in the defamation battle between WA Senator Linda Reynolds and her former staffer Brittany Higgins.
Reynolds is suing Higgins and her fiancé David Sharaz over statements the couple published on their separate social media accounts. The pair is defending their cases,which are being heard together.
Tuesday’s hearing will be the first in the ongoing Supreme Court legal stoush since Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found Bruce Lehrmann,on the balance of probabilities,raped Higgins at Parliament House in 2019.
Reynolds,the former boss of Lehrmann and Higgins,had faced years of criticism over her handling of Higgins’ rape allegation.
While not central to the case,Lee said Higgins and Sharaz “from the first moment” had pushed a narrative of a political cover-up to journalists in 2021,which he found no evidence for.
“For three years I have endured intense public scrutiny,vilification,vile trolling and have been demonised as the villain in a story of a political cover-up I have always known to be untrue,” Reynolds said shortly after the verdict.
However,she vowed to proceed with her own civil case against Higgins and Sharaz.
The trial is due to begin in July.