Brittany Higgins’ phone records vital to litigation case brought against her by Linda Reynolds

More than 56,000 pages of Brittany Higgins’ mobile phone records, downloaded by the Australian Federal Police, form a key part of the legal case brought against her by Senator Linda Reynolds.

The documents were originally prepared for Bruce Lehrmann’s libel case against Network 10 and will be used in the libel case against Ms Higgins, which goes to trial on August 2.

Senator Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, told reporters outside court that they had to find pages that were relevant to the case and that would be used in a different perspective to the case involving Mr Lehrmann and Network 10.

“Our case is a little different, we have to look at it again,” he said.

‘We can already see that there are documents in there that are useful and that need to be taken out.’

Lawyers for Ms Higgins and Senator Reynolds attended the Western Australian Supreme Court on Monday for a hearing on the directions, two weeks ahead of the trial.

Senator Reynolds is suing her former aide over claims that social media posts by Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz damaged her reputation.

She claims the reports suggested she was involved in a political cover-up surrounding allegations by Ms Higgins that she had been raped in Parliament House by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann, a claim he has consistently denied.

The Findings of Judge Michael Lee

Earlier this year, Federal District Court Judge Michael Lee ruled that he was convinced, based on the civil standard (which is different from the criminal standard), that Ms. Higgins had been raped.

The finding follows a lawsuit brought by Mr Lehrmann against Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a report about the alleged rape on the programme The Project in 2021.

Mr Lehrmann is appealing the decision.

Judge Lee also concluded that the allegations of a political cover-up involving Senator Reynolds and others were untrue. Senator Reynolds indicated that this supported her position.

Ms Reynolds told reporters she had to clear her name and that Judge Lee had been very clear that there was never any political conspiracy and that “many people’s lives have been devastated by the aftermath of Ms Higgins’ allegations.”

“There was never any political conspiracy and there were certainly allegations of abuse, as the evidence in the Lee trial has shown beyond any doubt,” she said.

Brittany Higgins’ cell phone records will be a key part of the lawsuit filed against her

Lawsuit

In October 2022, a criminal case against Mr Lehrmann in the ACT Supreme Court was dismissed due to jury misconduct.

Mr Lehrmann has denied guilty to the charges.

A mistrial was declared and the jury was disbanded after it was revealed that one of the jurors had conducted his own investigation beyond what was presented in court.

The trial was rescheduled for February 2023 but was called off and the charges dropped when the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, ruled that a new trial would pose an unacceptable risk to Ms Higgins’ mental health.