Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds was cast as a “villain” in a fictional political cover-up created by her former staffer Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz, a defamation trial has been told.

The former defence minister is suing Higgins over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation as she pursues vindication for alleged mistruths.

Lawyer Martin Bennett told the Western Australian Supreme Court that “every fairytale needed a villain”, and Higgins and Sharaz “cast Senator Reynolds in that role for their fictional story of a cover-up”.

He said the fiction included allegations of ill-treatment, ostracisation, bullying, harassment and threatening conduct.

“She was cast in … critical light and none of it was true,” he said on Friday during his opening submissions.

Bennett reminded the court about the details of Higgins’ personal injury claim over the alleged mishandling of her rape allegation that the Commonwealth settled for $2.4 million.

“The claims made by Ms Higgins were false and Senator Reynolds was denied the appropriate venue, the appropriate time, the appropriate funding by the Commonwealth to defend the actions of herself and her staff,” he said.

Bennett read a series of Higgins’ text messages with her then-boyfriend to rebut one of Higgins’ claims that she was ostracised and spent six weeks in a Perth hotel room working seven days a week during the 2019 election campaign.

“This will be my 15 minutes of fame. I’ll be in the back of the PM’s announcement,” he said reading one that referred to Higgins standing behind former prime minister Scott Morrison at a press conference.

Others detailed how Higgins had toured Perth’s sites, went to the beach, had a buffet dinner with friends and attended Reynolds’ birthday dinner.

Bennett also explored the night Higgins was allegedly raped in Parliament House and events in the weeks after.

“She’s just been appointed the Minister for Defence Industry and she’s got a security breach in her own office by two of her staff,” he said.

He said Senator Reynolds reacted protectively towards Higgins and told her then-chief of staff Fiona Brown to go to the Australian Federal Police to help get to the bottom of the incident.

“Ms Higgins couldn’t remember,” Bennett said.

He detailed the support given to Ms Higgins and how members of the Morrison government wanted her to report the matter to police but she refused.

He said Higgins’ later claims she wasn’t supported were “made up” and “attributed a callousness to Senator Reynolds that was wrong”.

Reynolds took offence at tweets on the social media platform X and Instagram posts published in 2022 and 2023.

One of the Instagram posts implied the senator mishandled Higgins’ rape allegation against colleague Bruce Lehrmann by failing to provide support, her statement of claim says.

The post also allegedly suggested the senator acted questionably during Lehrmann’s trial and engaged in a campaign of harassment towards Higgins.

Another post published by Higgins’ husband David Sharaz – which the claim says the couple was jointly responsible for – implied the senator pressured her former staffer not to continue with her sexual assault complaint to police.

The claim also said Higgins’ conduct was aggravated because it was part of a “malicious” plan, created by her and Sharaz, that alleged the senator was involved in a political cover-up of the rape allegation.

This allegedly led to Ms Higgins’ interviews with Lisa Wilkinson on Network Ten’s The Project and Samantha Maiden from News Corp in 2021.

Higgins’ defence relies on truth and that it was reasonable to comment and provide opinion on issues of public interest concerning government and political matters.

Lehrmann has always denied the sexual assault allegation. His criminal trial was aborted because of juror misconduct and Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636

– AAP