‘I was the perfect villain’: Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds claims she was set up by Lisa Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins

Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has accused Brittany Higgins and Lisa Wilkinson of teaming up to paint her as the “perfect villain” when the rape allegations first aired.

Ms Higgins, a former Liberal staffer, went public on an episode of The Project in 2021 that she was allegedly raped by a colleague in Ms Reynolds’ office two years earlier.

That colleague, later to be revealed as Bruce Lehrmann, went on to plead not guilty in highly publicised court proceedings and has strenuously denied ever engaging in sexual intercourse with Ms Higgins.

The trial was eventually dismissed due to juror misconduct in October 2022, with the Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold deciding not to proceed with a retrial.

Ms Reynolds said she was “devastated” when the sexual assault allegations were aired on national television, and that it was made out like she was covering up the alleged incident.

“I was the perfect villain,” she told Seven’s Spotlight program on Sunday evening.

“Although none of it, this is the irony of it, none of it was absolutely true.

“Every good political hit job and every good story like this, and every social crusade, needs a villain.

“And I’ve now learned a lot more about how that was set up through those recordings with Ms Higgins and Lisa Wilkinson.”

The recordings Ms Reynolds mentioned refer to lengthy audio clips between Ms Wilkinson, her producer Angus Llewellyn, Ms Higgins, and her partner David Sharaz.

During the conversations, from January 2021, the group could be heard discussing how they could recruit “friendly MPs” to “fire questions” about the alleged rape inside Parliament House at the then-Coalition government during Question Time.

Earlier this month, Ms Reynolds launched legal action against Ms Higgins for aggravated damages over an Instagram story and a follow-up Tweet.

Ms Higgins claimed on Instagram Senator Reynolds “continues to harass me through the media”, before urging her former boss to “stop”.

The writ filed in the Western Australian Supreme Court also shows Senator Reynolds is claiming Ms Higgins’ social media activity represent a breach of a March 2021 deed settlement which included a non-disparagement clause.

She is seeking two injunctions which would prohibit Ms Higgins from further publishing defamatory material and from future breaches of the deed.

During the Network Seven program on Sunday, Mr Lehrmann indicated that he will chase a multi-million-dollar compensation payment from the ACT government.

The television interview was his first since the Sofronoff inquiry report – which found the ACT chief prosecutor had lost objectivity in the case – was released.

The findings painted a grim picture of prosecutorial misconduct with inquiry chair Walter Sofronoff KC ruling that Mr Drumgold had “knowingly lied” to the ACT Supreme Court and engaged in “grossly unethical” conduct.

Mr Lehrmann, who is now studying law, said the response from the ACT government has been “insufficient” and “unacceptable”.