Linda Reynolds has relayed her fury over a black and white Carla Zampatti jacket – worth about $1,000 – that Brittany Higgins took from her office the morning after her rape, and never returned.
Ms Higgins was raped by her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann on a couch in Senator Reynolds’ Parliament House office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
Security footage showed her arriving at Capital Hill that evening wearing only a white pencil dress and heels, but footage captured the following day showed her leaving the building in the designer coat.
The former Liberal staffer previously told a court that she had wanted to cover herself up after her assault, so she found the coat in a charity box in Ms Reynolds office and put it on.
Ms Reynolds – who is now suing Ms Higgins for defamation in the WA Supreme Court – has maintained there was no charity box in her office and claimed the jacket was taken from her personal wardrobe.
Under cross-examination this week, Ms Reynolds revealed she thought she had lost the jacket until Lehrmann’s lawyer Steven Whybrow SC told her three years later that Ms Higgins took it.
She became enraged and texted Mr Whybrow late at night about Ms Higgins’ wardrobe choices – admitting in court that it was ‘catty’, but the frustration was not something she could control at the time.
Daily Mail Australia has now obtained a photo of Ms Reynolds wearing the designer jacket at an event in Rockingham, Western Australia, in 2017 – about two years before Ms Higgins swiped it from her office.
Linda Reynolds is pictured wearing her Carla Zampatti jacket in 2017, two years before Brittany Higgins swiped it
Brittany Higgins is pictured leaving Parliament House in Ms Reynolds’ designer jacket
Ms Reynolds could also be seen addressing a room full of local business leaders at the same event.
The jacket was mentioned twice in court on Thursday – once when Ms Reynolds was being asked about an interview she did with Liam Bartlett on Channel Seven’s Spotlight program last August.
Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young SC suggested to Ms Reynolds that she brought the jacket up to Mr Bartlett because ‘you had wanted to tell him that she stole your jacket’.
Ms Reynolds replied: ‘Well that’s correct because I didn’t get it back.’
After that, the situation was referred to as the ‘stolen’ jacket.
The issue came up again later that afternoon when Ms Reynolds was cross-examined about WhatsApp messages she sent Mr Whybrow at 11.12pm on October 6, 2022 – the day Ms Higgins gave evidence in Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
Ms Higgins had worn a beige, embroidered skirt suit worth about $750 – the same colour and design that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, wore during a visit to the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London earlier that year.
The senator told the court she felt frustrated that Ms Higgins would ‘imitate’ the Duchess at the rape trial because she was ‘still annoyed’ about her Carla Zampatti jacket.
Brittany Higgins is pictured in an embroidered beige skirt suit outside ACT Supreme Court in October 2022
Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pictured in the same skirt suit in April 2022
Ms Young asked: ”When you saw her wearing a £400 suit, you felt annoyed?’
Ms Reynolds agreed.
Ms Young asked: ‘You didn’t think she was entitled to wear such a lovely suit?’
Ms Reynolds said that wasn’t the case, she partly felt annoyed because Ms Higgins had ‘made a thing’ about the clothes she wore, often wearing white as a symbol to events.
‘It annoyed me because it was the connection with my coat and the image of her coming…she can wear whatever she wants…but what annoyed me was that I perceived her as imitating Kate Middleton,’ she said.
‘It doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but it did annoy me.’
Ms Young pointed out that people who attend court normally wear a suit.
Ms Reynolds agreed, but said she was only thinking about her own coat when she sent the messages.
‘I was upset about my jacket being stolen and I was sensitive to her outfits,’ she said.
Ms Reynolds said she wouldn’t have minded if Ms Higgins had explained afterwards that she took the jacket because she felt uncomfortable, or because she was cold.
She said the issue was the jacket disappeared without her knowledge, and was never returned.
In April, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found on a balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
He maintains his innocence and has appealed the findings.
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