The ACT Supreme Court has heard that Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds sought transcripts of evidence given by Brittany Higgins during the trial of Bruce Lehrmann.
Senator Reynolds gave evidence at the trial on Monday, where it was revealed she had attempted to acquire transcripts of Higgins’ evidence, before she went to court herself as a witness.
The court heard that Reynolds had sent a text message to defence lawyer Steven Whybrow, while Higgins was cross-examined, asking for the transcript.
“I was curious to know what had been said but I was advised by my lawyer that that wasn’t appropriate,” Reynolds told the court, when asked why she had tried to obtain the transcripts.
Reynolds was the federal defence minister when Lehrmann and Higgins were employed in her office in parliament house.
It was also revealed Reynolds’ partner had also been sitting in on the trial for large parts of Higgins’ evidence from the public gallery.
Reynolds denied discussing Higgins’ evidence with her partner, after her lawyer had advised them not to discuss it.
Reynolds also sent a test message to the defence lawyer, writing that messages sent between Higgins and Nicole Hamer, who also worked in her office at the time of the alleged rape, would be “revealing”. Reynolds said she was not aware that sending text messages to lawyers working on the trial was inappropriate.
She also denied she was politically invested in Lehrmann’s trial. Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.
Meanwhile, Senator Michaelia Cash also took to the witness stand on Monday, where she denied it would have been “politically embarrassing” for Higgins’ rape allegation to be made public.
“Absolutely not…I don’t know how it could be politically embarrassing,” she said.
Cash also said she was not aware of the “sexual element” of the alleged assault in parliament house until February 2021 when Higgins sought to resign from her job.