Brittany Higgins launches a fresh attack against Linda Reynolds

Brittany Higgins has accused Linda Reynolds of playing the ‘victim’ after she hit back at allegations she provided no support to her former staffer after her alleged rape.

Ms Higgins first alleged in February 2021 that she was raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann on a couch in Senator Reynolds’ parliamentary office in Canberra two years’ prior. Mr Lehrmann denies the allegations.

In the months following the rape claims, Senator Reynolds – who was the defence industry minister at the time – famously called Ms Higgins a ‘lying cow’ in an open-plan area of her office in Parliament House.

The inference at the time was that Ms Reynolds was questioning whether Ms Higgins was raped at all – but Senator Reynolds claims she was responding to allegations that she and chief-of-staff Fiona Brown had failed to offer support to the young staffer.

Senator Reynolds and Ms Brown have continually claimed they did offer support to Ms Higgins, while the former staffer claims she believed her job was on the line. 

In a tell-all interview with The Weekend Australian on Saturday, the senator said the comment was misconstrued but she was ‘in no state to defend myself’ at the time.

‘I was on sick leave, my whole world had come crashing down,’ she said.

But Ms Higgins hit back at Senator Reynolds’ comments in an Instagram post on Sunday challenging several claims made in the latest interview.

‘Let me get this straight,’ she wrote. ‘I’m the one who was publicly defamed by my former employer.’

Brittany Higgins is pictured in Queensland on Saturday – after extracts of her diary were published in The Australian

Brittany Higgins, who alleges she was raped by Linda Reynolds’ office, wrote an Instagram post asking why the senator ‘is somehow the victim’ (pictured)

‘I donate the money to charity because all I wanted was an apology and a retraction, and yet Linda Reynolds is somehow the victim?’

In the interview, the senator also said she apologised to Ms Higgins and paid damages out of her own pocket.

The publication then reported that Ms Higgins ‘planned’ to donate the money to a charity assisting victims of sexual assault.

In her post on Sunday, Ms Higgins confirmed that she did donate the $11,000 she received in damages to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, and posted a screenshot of the receipt.

‘Also, I didn’t “plan” on donating the money. I did it immediately. Not that The Australian reached out to confirm but here is the receipt,’ she wrote.

Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned the senator’s ‘lying cow’ comment at the time, labelling it ‘inappropriate and wrong’, but conceded she was under ‘significant stress’ at the time.

‘(Her) comments … related to the commentary about levels of support provided and her frustrations about how she felt that they were doing everything they believed in their power to provide support,’ he said. 

The Weekend Australian article published on Saturday also contained extracts from Ms Higgins’ personal diary, which she gave Australian Federal Police in 2021 to assist with their investigations.

Reynolds (above) claims she did offer Ms Higgins support following her rape allegations

Brittany Higgins has blasted three mysterious leaks of her private information in the wake of her rape allegations against former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann. She spoke out as new details from her personal diary appeared in the media after key pages and extracts had been handed over in confidence to police

The entries were not used in the ACT Supreme Court jury trial against Mr Lehrmann in October last year, and were therefore not on the public record. 

In a series of Twitter posts later that day, the former staffer said the publication of those entries was a ‘breach of her privacy’.

‘No journalist should have seen the photo of my diary,’ she said. ‘Stop publishing the private contents of my phone.’

The diary contents listed meetings with a series of journalists and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in March 2021.

‘I voluntarily provided this material to the police to help them form the brief of evidence and none of it was tabled in court,’ Ms Higgins tweeted on Saturday.

‘I entrusted police with my private information for the sole purpose that it could aid their investigation … nothing else.’

She claims it is just the latest in a string of incidents where information she supplied to the police has been made public that should not have been disclosed.

Ms Higgins added that it was the third time private material from her phone had been published, but the source of the leak is unknown.

‘I took a photo of an old page in my diary on July 7, 2021,’ she posted.

‘It is now being referenced in an article in the Australian. 

‘This is the third time private images, texts and WhatsApps from my phone have been published by this particular news outlet.’

In a series of Twitter posts on Saturday, Brittany Higgins said she gave police a photo of a page from her diary in 2021 for their investigation but it had subsequently been leaked to the media

Bruce Lehrmann (pictured outside court) has vehemently denied the allegation against him

The interview has upset Ms Higgins who took to Twitter accusing the newspaper of publishing private content that belonged to her

Ms Higgins accused Mr Lehrmann of raping her inside the Parliament House office of Ms Reynolds, where they both worked as political staffers, in 2019.

Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court was cut short in October because of juror misconduct.

Prosecutors later dropped the charges over concerns of the impact a second trial would have on Ms Higgins’ mental health.

Mr Lehrmann denies the rape allegation, maintaining he and Ms Higgins never had any sexual interaction.

Mr Lehrmann’s trial heard suggestions Ms Reynolds was mainly concerned with the impact the rape claim could have on the upcoming federal election when she met with Ms Higgins after the alleged assault.

But on Saturday Ms Reynolds claimed she was the victim of a ‘very well-orchestrated political hit’ to take her and the then coalition government down. 

The former government services minister categorically denied the suggestion during the trial and she told The Australian the accusation was ‘like a stake through my heart’.

‘Brittany’s story was perfect for the MeToo movement and for those of my colleagues in the Senate who were trying to bring down the government,’ she told the newspaper.

Ms Reynolds blasted Project host Lisa Wilkinson for putting Ms Higgins on television to reveal details of the allegations.

She accused Wilkinson and The Project of ‘exploitation’ after airing the interview with Ms Higgins before police could become involved.  

Ms Higgins claimed she was shown no support but managed to work up a smile when she had her photo taken with Ms Reynolds at a campaign dinner

‘What was The Project thinking? Putting a woman as distressed as Brittany Higgins was on national TV before she’d even talked to the police again,’ she said.

Ms Reynolds said she had met with Ms Higgins on April 1, 2019 and claims Ms Higgins made no mention of being raped.

Ms Reynolds said the ministerial staffer appeared ‘apologetic’ and ’embarrassed’ at the time but claimed there was no mention of an assault.

An internal department email obtained by The Weekend Australian also suggested Ms Reynold’s team had taken appropriate steps to help Ms Higgins.

Ms Brown had contacted a senior official responsible for dealing with staff welfare to make sure she was provided the proper support.

She had notified Ms Higgins she was ‘able to pursue a complaint’ and ‘made it very clear that if she requires assistance in making a complaint’ she would be supported.

Lauren Barons, an assistant secretary for parliamentary business, emailed Ms Brown saying: ‘The steps you have taken are appropriate.’

Ms Higgins claimed she was shown no support but managed to work up a smile when she had her photo taken with Ms Reynolds at a campaign dinner.

The photo was taken around the same time she made tweets praising Ms Reynolds.

Ms Higgins was photographed wearing the same white dress she allegedly wore on the night she was allegedly raped.

Ms Higgins (pictured) wrote a series of tweets about how her diary extracts should not have been made public

The photo was used as evidence in the trial to contest her claims she had kept the dress ‘under my bed in a plastic bag for a good six months, untouched, uncleaned’.

Ms Reynolds said she was suspicious something sexual had happened to Ms Higgins during their meeting on April 1 and suggested Ms Higgins speak to police.

Ms Brown led Ms Higgins to the AFP staff at parliament before Ms Reynolds said she returned saying she would not pursue it further.

Ms Reynolds said she was informed by AFP officers three days later that Ms Higgins intended to make a complaint which prompted her to offer support.

Ms Reynolds said she was not aware Ms Higgins had decided to contact journalists with her story and delay making a formal statement to police.

The West Australian senator also claimed she was the victim of a ‘a very well-orchestrated political hit’ after she was accused of covering up the rape.

Ms Reynolds said she only became aware Ms Higgins was going public with her allegations two weeks before the interview aired on The Project.

She said then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison publicly spoke out against her for not informing him about the serious allegation.

The former defence minister claimed she spoke with him in private the following day where he changed his tune.

‘He realised that it was never my position to tell anybody about Brittany Higgins’ story,’ she said.

She said the allegations and publicity had taken a toll on her health and she recalled collapsing on the bathroom floor of her Senate office, saying ‘I could have died’.

The former defence minister questioned why a ‘distressed’ woman was allowed to be interviewed by Wilkinson in the segment that aired on The Project in February, 2021

Ms Reynolds claimed pressure was added to her heart condition that already impacted her heart rate and blood pressure.

She bumped into then-health minister Greg Hunt the day before she was meant to deliver a major address to the National Press Club on February 24, 2021.

He told her she looked unwell prompting her to go to the doctors before she was seen by a cardiologist and admitted to hospital.

Ms Reynolds then took medical leave for her heart condition.

Ms Higgins reached a confidential settlement with the Commonwealth last year, reported to be worth several million dollars, over her claims of sexual harassment and discrimination at parliament. 

Ms Higgins told The Weekend Australian ‘any revisionist history offered by my former employer at this time is deeply hurtful’.

‘I have ­already publicly accepted apologies from Senator Reynolds offered in the wake of my allegations becoming public both in the Senate and through the media in 2021,’ she said.

‘I have accepted Senator Reynolds’ apology following an incident where she publicly defamed me by likening me to a barnyard animal.

‘I’ve went through three ­reviews during the Morrison government tenure, a criminal trial, a mediation process with the Commonwealth and now I’m engaging with an independent inquiry into the criminal trial.’

Mr Lehrmann is suing multiple media outlets over their coverage of the rape allegations, while the ACT government has launched an independent inquiry into the handling of Ms Higgins’ complaint by police, prosecutors and a victims’ support service.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Ms Higgins for comment.

THE DIARY ENTRIES BRITTANY HIGGINS IS FURIOUS HAVE BEEN MADE PUBLIC

Two pages of Ms Higgins’ 2021 Kikki.K gold spiral-bound diary have been made public.

The pages containing the week from March 8 to March 14 – the week before her March4Justice speech, following the publication of her rape allegation – were seen by the Weekend Australian.

The entries:

Monday, March 8 – ‘4Corners Porter/Kate’ and ‘J-Bish interview’.

Tuesday, March 9 – ‘Laura Tingle dinner’ and ‘Katharine Murphy’.

Wednesday, March 10 – ‘4 Corners Chat’ and ‘Lunch w Sam Maiden’.

Thursday, March 11 – ‘wrote speech for women’s march’.

Friday, March 12 – ‘AFP visit and more statement’ 

Saturday, March 13 – ‘Dinner + Drinks with Lucy and Malcolm’ and a black arrow pointing to ‘Lisa and Pete dinner’

Sunday, March 14 – ‘Fly to CBR’ and ‘Newspoll ALP 51 Lead’ with the ’51’ circled.