Friend reveals how Linda Reynolds was a ‘shaking mess’ after a breakdown amid Brittany Higgins’ cover-up accusations

Linda Reynolds was left a wreck and in need of 24-hour care after suffering a breakdown during the storm caused by Brittany Higgins’ accusations that she covered up her affair, a defamation lawsuit has been filed.

The former defence minister is suing her former aide, Ms Higgins, over a series of social media posts she claims contain untruths, including her misrepresentation of the incident, which she claims have damaged her reputation.

Denita Wawn told the Perth District Court it was “devastating” to see her friend of more than 20 years so physically and mentally unwell after her collapse in Parliament House in 2021, which caused serious heart problems.

“She was a mess … Physically she was shaking, she was pale, she looked frail. Mentally she was in a state of great distress,” she told the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Thursday.

Ms Wown said she was “extremely concerned” about the senator.

“Her heart condition could have caused her to die and the stress she was putting herself through only made that condition worse,” she said.

“I spent a lot of time at her house and took care of her. Several of us took turns.”

Ms Wawn said the senator remains in a state of great anxiety and stress in 2022.

Denita Wawn said she reacted to the interview with Brittany Higgins (pictured left next to Lisa Wilkinson) with ‘shock, horror and empathy’

“She wasn’t resilient… I tried to make her look like she could handle it, but in reality she couldn’t. She would fall apart when she was around me or a group of friends,” she said.

The court heard that after the Labor Party was elected president in 2022, the senator found himself in an unusually high state of stress while on holiday with friends in northern New South Wales.

“She burst into tears on our last night … she was very angry that she had not been appointed as a shadow minister, not even a junior minister, which had effectively prevented her from working as a minister in the future,” Ms Wawn said.

Ms Wawn said she had repeatedly “begged” the senator to retire from politics in the years after Ms Higgins accused her of mishandling her alleged rape in 2019.

Senator Reynolds announced in February that she will not seek re-election.

“She’s not able to put as much stress on her body as she is now,” she said.

‘Her self-confidence is superficial and she continues to show a significant lack of self-confidence in her private life.’

She admitted that the senator had been suffering from a heart condition before Ms Higgins’ allegations in 2021 and had been taking medication for depression and anxiety for a time.

Ms Wawn remembers watching Network Ten’s The Project when Ms Higgins was interviewed.

“My reaction was one of shock, horror and empathy, particularly for Ms Higgins,” she said.

‘(And) for Linda that there were allegations that she had not fulfilled her duties as an employer.’

Dean Carlson, Senator Reynold’s former acting chief of staff during the 2019 federal election, told the court there was extensive debate about what should happen in the days following Higgins’ alleged rape.

Denita Wawn (pictured) told the court her friend Linda Reynolds was a ‘mess’ after the cover-up

Mr Carlson said Senator Reynolds had consulted with the then Special Minister of State, Alex Hawke, and that he was in favour of informing the Australian Federal Police.

“The conversation got quite heated. Ms Brown didn’t want to do that without Ms Higgins’ permission,” he told the Western Australian Supreme Court on Thursday, referring to the senator’s chief of staff, Fiona Brown.

“There were concerns about the circumstances. The fact that Ms Higgins was found in a naked state justified the AFP’s ability to determine whether anything had happened.”

Mr Carlson said it was eventually decided that Ms Brown would contact Ms Higgins to offer to help her contact the police.

“I supported Ms Brown’s position. I felt it was important that Ms Higgins had a say in any action and her privacy was paramount,” he said.

Mr Carlson said the security breach on February 23, 2019, which led to Ms Higgins and her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann (who has consistently denied any rape) being in the senator’s ministerial office was concerning.

When asked if he suspected sexual abuse at the time, he replied: ‘There were too many question marks … of course that was a real option.’

“We were working with a lack of information,” he said.

He told the court he understood Ms Higgins was later offered alternatives over her workplace during the 2019 election campaign, in the weeks following the alleged rape in the senator’s office.

Brittany Higgins is pictured outside the Federal Court in Sydney in December

She remained in Canberra, working from the Gold Coast, where her parents lived, and in Perth ‘where the minister spent most of the election campaign’.

Mr Carlson said the senator’s office paid for Ms Higgins’ trip to the Gold Coast during the campaign “in recognition of the fact that she was the only campaigner who had not seen her family for an extended period of time”.

“I remember it was an unusual arrangement because we had to work out how to do it within travel policy, because she didn’t live in Queensland, she lived in Canberra,” he said.

Ms Higgins defended herself by saying she felt “isolated, traumatised, depressed, unsupported and confused” during her time in Perth for the 2019 federal election campaign.

Mr Carlson said campaign staff who had travelled to Perth stayed at the Aloft Hotel, near the senator’s campaign office.

He said Ms Higgins was often invited to after-work social activities, such as dinners and drinks, and that she attended these.

“I found Mrs Higgins to be a very enthusiastic team member and whenever I gave her a task it was always carried out,” he said.