Linda Reynolds breaks her silence after court ruled Bruce Lehrmann likely committed rape on her ministerial couch - as she shares pointed message to Brittany Higgins

Linda Reynolds has broken her silence following Bruce Lehrmann's evisceration in the Federal Court, vowing she is 'committed to fully vindicating' her reputation.

The Senator revealed that she will continue with her own defamation proceedings against her former staffer Brittany Higgins and Ms Higgins' fiance David Sharaz.

Ms Reynolds is suing both Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz separately in the WA Federal Court over social media comments the pair made about her.

Ms Reynolds had long been criticised for her handling of Ms Higgins' rape allegation, which was alleged to have been committed by Mr Lehrmann on a sofa in her office in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019, when she served as defence minister.

Justice Michael Lee, in his 324-page judgement handed down on Monday, found that the rape did likely take place. 

But Justice Lee also found no evidence for the political 'cover-up narrative' he said was pushed by Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz 'from the first moment' of their decision to speak to Lisa Wilkinson on The Project in February 2021, describing it as 'objectively short on facts but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies'. 

Ms Reynolds said it 'would be an understatement' to say she was pleased with Justice Lee's ruling, describing the whole affair as the 'cover-up that never was'. 

'For three years I have endured intense public scrutiny, vilification, vile trolling and have been demonised as the villain in a story of a political cover-up I have always known to be untrue,' Ms Reynolds told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ms Reynolds said that she and her former chief-of-staff Fiona Brown had both 'had our reputations destroyed and have had our health seriously and irreparably compromised'.

Ms Brown was one of the only witnesses in Mr Lehrmann's defamation case to receive a lot of praise from Justice Lee. 

Ms Brown, who had been Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins' boss, had shown 'integrity' in her handling of Ms Higgins' case, Justice Lee found.

The staffer had resisted political pressure to report Ms Higgins' incident to the Federal Police, the judge said.  

'Despite Ms Brown facing sustained pressure from her Minister and one of the Minister’s colleagues to report the incident to the AFP – even though she was unsure an allegation was then being made of rape and irrespective of the wishes of Ms Higgins – she pushed back,' Justice Lee observed. 

He added: 'She showed integrity in resisting pressure she subjectively considered inappropriate and evinced a concern for the autonomy and welfare of Ms Higgins,' he said.

'In these circumstances, to be later vilified as an unfeeling apparatchik willing to throw up roadblocks in covering up criminal conduct at the behest of one’s political overlords must be worse than galling.'

The judge also said he 'unhesitatingly' preferred Ms Brown's evidence over Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann's.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said on Tuesday that Ms Reynolds had 'absolutely been vindicated'.   

'She’s a first-class individual, a person of great honour and integrity, her reputation has been besmirched, and she’s right to pursue the matter in the way that she is,' he said in reference to Ms Reynolds’ defamation suits.

'I would have thought, off the back of the judgment yesterday, people would be looking to settle the matter against Linda Reynolds and issuing a full apology to her for the way in which her reputation has been tarnished.'

Nine-hour-long mediation talks held last month between Ms Higgins, Mr Sharaz and Ms Reynolds failed to reach a settlement.  

Ms Higgins' was admitted to hospital several hours after the talks collapsed. 

Unless the couple decide to settle, a trial is expected to go ahead, likely to begin in May and lasting for six weeks.