Jury discharged in sexual assault trial of Australian government adviser

Sydney — An Australian court discharged the entire jury on Thursday in the high-profile trial of former government adviser Bruce Lehrmann accused of sexually assaulting a colleague in Parliament House, after it said a juror got access to details that were not submitted as evidence.

Lucy McCallum, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, said at least one juror had access to research that was not given to the jury during the trial.

A court bailiff inadvertently found the juror had access to an academic research paper on sexual assault, court documents showed. The 12-day trial had concluded and the jury had been deliberating for five days when it was found.

McCallum said that although the juror clarified that the document had not been used, the findings had to be dealt with scepticism, leading her to dismiss the jury.

The court said a new trial would begin on February 20.

Brittany Higgins, a former staffer for former defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, went public in 2021 with the allegation that she had been sexually assaulted in a ministerial office in Parliament House in Canberra in March 2019.

The allegation rocked the former government led by Scott Morrison as he struggled to assuage public anger months before a general election amid reports of sexual abuse, discrimination against women and misconduct in parliament.

“Like all women who experience sexual violence, I knew the odds were stacked against me. The criminal justice system has long failed to deliver outcomes to victims of sexual assault,” a visibly emotional Higgins told reporters outside the court.

Morrison lost a May election to the centre-left Labor party.

Lehrmann, the defendant in the case who has been charged with sexual intercourse without consent, has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.

Lehrmann’s lawyer, Steven Whybrow, said in a statement later that Higgins’s comments on the justice system had been brought to the attention of the court and the Australian Federal Police.

Reuters