Linda Reynolds’ high-profile defamation battle with Brittany Higgins is set to resume as lawyers prepare to wrap their cases.
Higgins is being sued by the senator over a series of social media posts that Reynolds believes damaged her reputation.
Senator Linda Reynolds (right) has taken defamation action against Brittany Higgins.Credit: Holly Thompson/ Supplied
More than 20 witnesses including former prime minister Scott Morrison have given evidence in the WA Supreme Court trial.
Reynolds alleges Higgins and her now-husband David Sharaz cast her as the “villain” in their “political cover-up fairytale” that included accusations of ill-treatment, ostracism, bullying, harassment and threatening conduct.
Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, ridiculed the claim Higgins was targeting the senator in a bid to harm her when she spoke to journalists Lisa Wilkinson on Network Ten’s The Project and Samantha Maiden from News Corp about the alleged mishandling of the incident.
Morrison told the court he feared Reynolds would die amid the political firestorm that followed.
“It was the weaponising of this issue for political purposes to discredit both Senator Reynolds … and the government and, by extension, myself,” he said.
Higgins, who is pregnant, was expected to give evidence late in the trial, but Young told the court she could win the case without doing so, while also raising concerns about her client’s medical condition.
The trial continues today, with closing submissions set down for three days.
AAP
Read the full article here
