Linda Reynolds was in tears by the time she finished giving evidence on Friday.
The Liberal senator will not show up at the WA Supreme Court in Perth for the seventh day of her defamation case against her former staffer Brittany Higgins because Parliament has resumed.
She was pictured in the Senate on Monday morning.
Ms Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins over a series of social media posts she claims damaged her reputation.
Ms Higgins claims Ms Reynolds did not support her in the wake of her rape claims against former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in 2019, and that she was forced to choose between pursuing her complaint with police and her political career.
The social media posts at the heart of the case perpetuate the claim that Ms Reynolds was not supportive.
Ms Reynolds denies those claims and told the court last week that she did try to support Ms Higgins, but she avoided addressing the assault with her directly because she did not see herself as a counsellor.
Under cross-examination by Ms Higgins’ barrister Rachael Young SC, the senator said she felt comfortable knowing Ms Higgins was provided with counselling services.
On Friday, Ms Reynolds broke down while telling the court that she blamed herself for Labor senator Kimberley Kitching’s death.
Ms Kitching had a fatal heart attack on March 10, 2022. She was 52.
Earlier in the week, Ms Reynolds told the court that Ms Kitching approached her after morning prayers in Parliament House in 2021 and said she was sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Ms Kitching said Labor had found out about the rape that occurred in Ms Reynolds’ office and they were going to ‘rain down hell’ on her.
She found out about the rape via an anonymous email that was sent directly to her which outlined the rape, but did not mention Ms Higgins’ name.
Ms Kitching gave the letter to the Australian Federal Police, rather than her Labor colleagues.
Ms Reynolds told the court that Penny Wong was angry at Ms Kitching when Labor found out about the rape because she had given the letter to the AFP rather than to her.
‘Penny Wong said something to the impact of, “Labor could have weaponised it”,’ Ms Reynolds told the court.
She said Ms Kitching was angry and upset over the situation.
On Friday, Ms Reynolds told the court that Ms Kitching had denied giving her the heads up about Labor’s plan to weaponise Ms Higgins’ rape allegations.
Ms Reynolds said Ms Kitching was ‘livid’.
Asked why she had linked Ms Higgins’ rape claims to Ms Kitching’s death, Ms Reynolds cried uncontrollably.
‘I wanted to tell the truth,’ she said.
Ms Young asked: ‘Because it displays your contempt for the Labor Party?’
Ms Reynolds replied: ‘It displays my guilt. If I hadn’t revealed her confidence to me … that’s when she was furious with me … what led to her being ostracised by Labor.
‘I shouldn’t have weakened to tell them, even in private.
‘She was so angry with me and she was losing weight … I carry the guilt of telling the senators that led to that.
‘I believe what I said … caused [Labor] to bully her to death. I carry a great deal of guilt.’
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