Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has broken down on the stand as she recounted her guilt over Kimberley Kitching’s death to a defamation trial.

The former defence minister is suing Brittany Higgins over a series of social media posts containing alleged mistruths that she believes have damaged her reputation.

Ms Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young probed the retiring politician on Friday about her claim Ms Kitching had given her a “heads up” about a Labor Party plan to weaponise Ms Higgins’ alleged rape and her mishandling of it.

The senator agreed Ms Kitching denied the conversation happened and publicly lambasted her for making the statement.

“She was livid,” she told the Western Australian Supreme Court on Friday.

Ms Young quizzed the senator about her statement earlier in the trial that Ms Kitching’s decision to advise her about the plan led to her death.

“I wanted to tell the truth,” Senator Reynolds said crying uncontrollably.

“Because it displays your contempt for the Labor Party?” Ms Young said.

“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 them to bully her to death. I carry a great deal of guilt.”

Senator Reynolds denied she suspected Ms Higgins had been raped in the days after the alleged incident despite being told her former staffer had been found drunk and undressed and that Bruce Lehrmann had been on top of her before he hurriedly left the building.

“You believed that sexual activity without consent had occurred in your office,” Ms Young said in Western Australia’s Supreme Court.

“That is not correct,” Senator Reynolds replied.

“There had been no allegation of sexual assault. I thought I was doing everything right thing.”

Ms Young also questioned the senator about the meeting she held with Ms Higgins on April 1 in the same office she was allegedly assaulted in.

“What I remember saying is that ‘I am your boss, I’m your employer, and I’m not the right person to be having discussions with you about intimate matters’,” the senator said.

The senator said the first time she learned Ms Higgins may have been raped was when she met a senior Australian Federal Police officer on April 3.

“I certainly talked to her about the security breach and the implications of that,” she said.

“I didn’t seek to be her councillor, but I kept an eye out, and I spent time, quite a bit of time with her on the campaign trail.

“Did I see myself as a mental health professional? No, I did not. Did I see my role was to make sure that she had had the support she needed.”

“You shut her down… when you said I am not the right person to,” Ms Young said.

“I would still do the same thing today if I had a young staff member who couldn’t remember and who was in distress,” the senator said.

Senator Reynolds also denied she told Ms Higgins “as women this is something we go through”.

Ms Young also asked if she had asked Ms Higgins if she wanted the matter reported the then-prime minister, Scott Morrison, to which she replied: “I didn’t even cross my mind… It wasn’t my story to tell”.

The senator also denied that she knew when giving her evidence at Bruce Lehrmann’s trial that if she stated she knew about the cleaning it would have suggested she knew “something untoward had happened”.

Weirdness in the good Senator Linda’s defamation action