Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann will face the first day of an almost two-month trial on Tuesday for the alleged sexual assault of Brittany Higgins in parliament house.
The high profile trial, which has already been delayed due to pretrial publicity, is expected to last up to seven weeks and will attract significant media coverage.
The ACT supreme court is expected to hear evidence from Higgins, high-profile journalists, parliamentary security and political figures, among others.
Higgins alleges she was raped by her then colleague in the ministerial office of then defence minister, Linda Reynolds, in the early hours of the morning on 23 March 2019.
Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty, and will be represented by barrister Steven Whybrow, and Kamy Saeedi Law, a Canberra-based firm.
The prosecution will be led by the ACT’s director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold SC.
The court is expected to begin jury empanelment on Tuesday morning before commencing a series of opening addresses from the judge, prosecution and defence.
The ACT supreme court chief justice, Lucy McCallum, will preside over the trial and has already indicated the need to tread carefully in selecting jurors.
McCallum told a pretrial hearing she will ask potential jurors “to search their souls about whether they can be impartial”.
She will ask jurors who follow Higgins on Twitter or have heard her speak at public events to excuse themselves.
The trial has been repeatedly delayed, first due to the availability of Lehrmann’s defence team, and then due to pretrial publicity.
The last delay, made by McCallum “regrettably and with gritted teeth”, was caused by public comments from journalist Lisa Wilkinson and broadcasters Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones.
