Brittany Higgins’s Twitter followers may have to excuse themselves from jury, judge says

The trial of Bruce Lehrmann, who has pleaded not guilty to raping Brittany Higgins, will begin on 4 October and run for up to seven weeks. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Members of the jury panel in the trial of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins will be asked to excuse themselves by the judge if they follow Higgins on Twitter or saw her speak about the allegations at any public event.

The ACT supreme court chief justice, Lucy McCallum, revealed her thinking about empanelment of the jury at a brief pretrial mention on Friday, saying she would ask potential jurors “to search their souls about whether they can be impartial”.