This is the trial that a Supreme Court judge never wanted to hear.

Over many months, Justice Marcus Solomon warned of the “human cost” of a prolonged and highly public trial if former defence minister Linda Reynolds made good on her threat to take her former staffer, Brittany Higgins, to court for defamation.

And so it has come to pass. Reynolds, who has mortgaged her home of 40 years to pay for her legal costs, says she has been nationally vilified. 

Higgins, who is now pregnant, has yet to take the stand, but has reportedly sold her home in France - where she moved to start a new life - to defend herself.

Today, WA Today reporter Jesinta Burton, on the toll that suing one of Australia’s most public rape victims - as found by the civil courts - might have on both women. And to what end.