Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz are adjusting to their new lives in France after leaving Australia behind, as the couple cuddle outside their rustic chateau.

The pair both wore blue down jackets, while Mr Sharaz also wore a cream-coloured scarf, to brave the gloomy weather in the village of Lunas on Friday evening local time, where they plan to settle in newfound anonymity 17,000km from their former house.

When Ms Higgins arrived at the property in their dark-coloured rental Volvo, Mr Sharaz rushed outside to meet her, hugging her before escorting her inside.

Their move to Europe follows five years of intense scrutiny after Ms Higgins alleged she was raped at Parliament House in 2019, sparking back-to-back court cases.

The latest case is the defamation lawsuit brought by the man she accused of sexual assault — former Liberal colleague Bruce Lehrmann — which concluded in federal court this week.

Higgins and Sharaz bought the five-bedroom property in the sleepy village of fewer than 600 inhabitants in the Dordogne region of southern France following Higgins’ taxpayer-funded $2.4 million compensation.

The purchase – the house has a gazebo and a large swimming pool for entertaining and is worth an estimated $600,000 – has the town abuzz with talk of “the Australians”, the local mayor told media on Wednesday.

After flying out of Brisbane earlier this week, the couple traveled through Singapore, where Mrs Higgins posted on social media: “No matter how far or how wide I wander, I still call Australia home,” before arriving on the 4, 5 star Sheraton Bordeaux Airport. Hotel.

They were spotted holding hands on Thursday as they took their cavoodle Kingston and cat Clover out of quarantine at Bordeaux-Merigniac airport.

Mr Sharaz told the waiting media that the couple were excited to move into their new home with their pets at Christmas, adding that he was also looking forward to doing some mowing, referring to the castle’s overgrown grounds.

The couple’s move coincides with the conclusion of Lehrmann’s defamation case this week against Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10, which first exposed Higgins’ claims.

Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegations and said his reputation has been significantly damaged.

As the case draws to a close and Judge Michael Lee ponders his ruling over the summer holidays, Ms Wilkinson’s legal adviser, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, comes up with a wild theory about why Ms Higgins was found naked by security that night.

The lawyer suggested Ms Higgins could have taken off her cocktail dress because there had been a “kind of freak heatwave” in Canberra that evening and the air conditioning in Parliament House had “broken down”.

Her sarcastic theory – the temperature in Canberra that night at the airport was a mild 16.7 degrees Celsius – was intended to convince Judge Lee that the only rational explanation for her undressing was “that sex was taking place”.

The criminal trial against Mr Lehrmann was halted due to juror misconduct and a subsequent retrial was called off due to concerns about Ms Higgins’ mental health, leaving no judicial verdict on what happened that night.

The result is that it is up to Judge Lee to determine whether Wilkinson and Network 10’s report is covered by a truth defense and whether, on the balance of probabilities, an assault occurred.

His task will be tough as Judge Lee previously told the court that parts of the evidence from both Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann in the trial cannot be relied on.

“The two main witnesses have real credit problems and several parts of each witness’s evidence simply cannot be accepted,” Judge Lee said.

Ten’s barrister Matthew Collins QC agreed with the comments.

He added: ‘In relation to both key players, we will seek to convince Your Honor that there was a qualitative difference between Mr Lehrmann’s dishonesty and the successful credit attacks directed against Ms Higgins.’

“Mr. Lehrmann turned out to be a fundamentally dishonest man who was willing to say and do anything he believed would further his interests,” Dr. Collins argued.

“He was completely unconcerned with providing the court with a fair account of the events of March 22 and 23, 2019.”

According to both parties, they went to Parliament House together after hours, but their stories about what happened in the office of their then boss Senator Linda Reynolds – where there was no CCTV – differ.

Mr Lehrmann’s legal counsel has argued that Ms Higgins made up the rape claims in a moment of panic after waking up in her boss’s office after a night of partying.

According to Gibbs Wright Lawyers, in a defamation case: “The defendant bears the responsibility of establishing on the balance of probabilities that the defamatory allegations arising from the publication complained of are true, or substantially true.”

“This is because the law of defamation presumes the publication to be false until a defense of the truth has been raised and proven.”

Judge Lee will have to determine whether Network 10 and Wilkinson’s claims are covered by a truth defense, in which case they will not have to pay anything.

If he finds that this is not the case, significant damages and legal costs may be awarded to Mr. Lehrmann.

Yet Network Ten and Wilkinson argue that the segment was a matter of public interest and its preparation was reasonable, and should therefore fall under qualified privilege and not be liable for damages.

However, there is also another scenario, in which Judge Lee finds that Mr. Lehrmann was not identifiable from The Project’s interview with Ms. Higgins.

If this is established, the case will be over with nothing being found one way or the other about the events of that night.

Justice Lee is expected to issue a ruling early next year.

Laurence Fox’s new girlfriend is a conspiracy theorist podcaster who has claimed the moon landings were faked, 9/11 was an inside job, climate change is a ‘smokescreen’ and Jeffrey Epstein was ‘popped’ after Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview. 

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Barker, who was seen accompanying Fox to the High Court today for the start of a libel trial, describes herself on Instagram as a model, body double and stuntwoman. She was born in America but now lives in the UK. 

She regularly appears on Elite Thinking Club, a ‘critical thinking’ fringe podcast that touts itself as a ‘show dedicated to critical thinking’ but airs wild conspiracy theories including the idea Princess Diana was murdered on the orders of the Queen. 

Asked in an episode on the theory of evolution whether humans are descended from apes, she replied: ‘I think that’s what we’re made to believe and that is what we should be believing [sic] but I don’t think that is. No. I think we come from another race.’

Barker also claims that financier Epstein was killed following Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview – but Epstein died in August 2019, three months before the Duke of York’s excruciating interview with Emily Maitlis took place.

The Elite Thinking Podcast’s YouTube channel has 500 subscribers, and began posting episodes three years ago with a single host, Chris Jules Julien.

Barker began appearing in episodes at the start of 2021, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and was quick to begin sharing radical views on topics commonly up for debate in conspiracy theory circles.

Julien’s TikTok channel, where he posts clips from the podcast, has nearly 35,000 followers.

The show is available on a number of mainstream podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

In a video on conspiracies surrounding the Royal Family, shared in February 2021, Barker claimed Jeffrey Epstein was killed because of his links with Prince Andrew.

The disgraced financier died in prison in August 2019 in what was ruled to be a suicide; he had been arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking shortly before his death, prompting a raft of theories suggesting he had been murdered.

She said in the podcast: ‘The minute Prince Andrew had to do that interview that was it, Jeffrey was going to be popped. Because he’s royalty – and you mess with the royals you ain’t going to come out alive are you.’ 

However, the interview itself was only recorded in November 2019, three months after Epstein died.

In March 2021, Barker appeared to suggest that the September 11 attacks had ‘grey areas’ of unanswered questions, making apparent references to a theory popular among conspiracists that heat from jet fuel couldn’t have melted the World Trade Centre’s steel construction.

In an episode entitled ‘The truth behind 911’, Barker claims to have seen a ‘different perspective’ on the al-Qaeda-orchestrated attack after visiting the US.

She said: ‘Being around American people I was hearing about these grey areas which wasn’t on the media [sic]. Things like the fuel, the steel, about the building and the way it came down.’

She added that her father appeared to suggest the attacks had been a so-called ‘false flag’ operation to justify the US invasion of Afghanistan. 

Ms Barker continued: ‘My dad was an ex-military man. I told him I was petrified on the flight and he told me I would be fine. 

‘I got there and he told me they need to warrant having a war – this was their warrant. This was their way of getting all of us to say ”yes, go get them”.

‘So I came back from my trip with a different perspective on it. Those who went to work that day in that building did not think that another human being – those in power and people running the country and outside sources would ever do something like that.’

She added: ‘When I came back was when I realised the world isn’t what we think it is. We need to look into the grey areas. 

‘We need to think more, we need to speak to people, we need to go to these places and actually learn from those people who have experienced these thing that were there. Because they are the people who should be telling the stories, not the media and newsreaders.’ 

Later in 2021, Barker appeared on the podcast again to suggest that climate change was a ‘smokescreen for something else’, as a means to ‘control’ people.

‘I feel like [climate change] is the next emergency they want to throw at us,’ she said.

‘It’s like we’ve gone from the Covid emergency to climate change…the next thing we want to control you with is climate change. 

‘I’ve been hearing all these different radio broadcasts, social media and news outlets about how the impact of us looking down was great for the planet and we may have to have these fire drill lockdowns continuously in order for us to be here and have a planet…I feel it’s a smokescreen for something else.’ 

And in an April 2021 episode, Barker appeared to suggest that the 1969 Moon landings had been a ‘big lie’ – another popular conspiracy theory suggesting that the Apollo 11 mission was faked.

She said on the episode: ‘Can you imagine being something like that. Imagine being back in that time and they say: ”We’re going to say you’ve been to the moon but you’re not actually going”. 

‘I don’t think I could go along with it. That’s quite a big lie to keep going.’

As the coronavirus pandemic continued into 2022, Barker told an episode recorded in January that she was not vaccinated and regarded the government’s push for vaccinations as ‘propaganda’.

‘I don’t wear a mask, I’m not vaccinated, and I don’t use hand sanitiser due to the toxic chemicals…and I’m still alive, I’m still here,’ she said.

‘I feel like the Government feel like they’re losing control. People are fed up of it. It’s a divisive tactic – mask wearers v non-wearers and vaccinated versus non-vaccinated. 

‘I’ve never seen so much push for a medical treatment and getting vaccinated and boosters like I have in a year and a half. It’s mind-blowing. All the adverts, all the propaganda. It’s just crazy.’ 

She later said that getting a vaccine was a matter of choice, adding: ‘It’s the coercion and manipulation. You should not be coerced or manipulated into doing something you don’t want to do.’ 

Barker’s social media features posts in which she rails against efforts to protect people during the coronavirus pandemic, including in 2020 when she claimed to clash with producers on a film set in Liverpool while working as a body double.

The podcaster, who has admitted that she was not vaccinated against Covid, called on-set Covid safety marshalls ‘power tripping bullies’ – and claimed she ‘won the battle’ to be on set because ‘production needed me more than I needed them’.

While she did not name the film in her social media post, she included an image of comic book character Catwoman and tagged the post #WarnerBros. 

Catwoman, played by Zoe Kravitz, appeared in Warner Bros’ 2022 action film The Batman, which was filmed in Liverpool in 2020. Barker’s name does not appear in the list of credits on IMDB.

Other photos on social media show her wearing a t-shirt reading ‘I will not comply’, and waving a sign appearing to express support for the so-called ‘Blade Runners’ who have vandalised ULEZ cameras in protest at the zone’s expansion in August. 

Barker was pictured holding hands with Fox as he entered the High Court to begin a libel trial on Wednesday.

Fox has shared images of him with Barker previously, posting a selfie ahead of a ‘worldwide freedom rally’ in September, captioned: ‘Off for a little stroll.’

The pair have also been pictured together at hustings ahead of the Uxbridge by-election in July, where he lost his deposit after picking up just 714 votes, and at a charity gala in London in September.

The actor-turned-politician is being sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal over a row on Twitter, now known as X, in October 2020.

Mr Fox called Mr Blake and the former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, whose real name is Colin Seymour, ‘paedophiles’ in an exchange about a decision by Sainsbury’s to celebrate Black History Month and provide a safe space for black employees.

After Mr Fox called for a boycott of the supermarket, the actor was called ‘a racist’ by the pair and actress Nicola Thorp in their own posts on the platform.

The Reclaim Party founder, who denies being a racist, is counter-suing the trio over their tweets, claiming they damaged his reputation. 

Calvin Robinson, who was sacked by GB News after showing support for Fox after he made sexist remarks about political correspondent Ava Evans, appeared to confirm the relationship in a post on social media.

Responding to the claim made by lawyers in court that Fox was an ‘intelligent racist’, Mr Robinson wrote on X: ‘You couldn’t make it up. Laurence was sat there in court today with his mixed race girlfriend and mixed race close friend, being called a racist by three middle class white folks.’

Barker and Fox were contacted for comment. 

A summons from the Special Judge of the MP-MLA Court, Judge Harjeet Singh Jaspal, has asked CM Gehlot to appear before the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on August 7.

New Delhi: A court in Delhi has summoned the chief minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, in a defamation case brought against him by Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. According to reports, Shekhawat has filed a libel suit against the congress veteran in connection with a Rs 900-crore credit society scam.

A summons from the Special Judge of the MP-MLA Court, Judge Harjeet Singh Jaspal, has asked CM Gehlot to appear before the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on August 7.

Earlier, the Rouse Avenue court has reserved its order to summon the chief minister of Rajasthan in the defamation case brought by Union minister Jal Shakti.

Shekhawat had previously filed a defamation suit against Gehlot, alleging that the Congress leader had made false allegations against him and accusing Shekhawat of being involved in Rs 900-crore Sanjivani Credit Society scam.

The Union minister alleged that Gehlot defamed him as his name never appeared in the said scam when it was investigated by the Rajasthan government.

Ben Roberts-Smith is spotted boarding an international flight with his girlfriend since he lost his defamation ‘trial of the century’ over war crimes charges

• A disgraced ex-soldier has been spotted in New Zealand
• Ben Roberts-Smith got a flight back to Australia

By Eli Green For Nca Newswire

published: 07:09 EDT, Jun 14, 2023 | Updated: 07:15 EDT, Jun 14, 2023