The judge in the high-profile rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann says she was left with no choice than to discharge the jury after a juror admitted accessing information that was not presented as evidence in court.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum summoned the 12 jurors who had been struggling to reach a unanimous verdict to the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday morning. She explained a juror had admitted to obtaining material that was not included in the trial after material relating to the prevalence of false rape accusations had been discovered by a security officer.
“You must not try to undertake your own research,” McCallum told the jurors, adding that she had warned them of this “at least 17 times” during the course of the trial.
Lehrmann is accused of raping his former colleague Brittany Higgins in Canberra’s Parliament House in March 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied any sexual activity with Higgins.
The trial ran for 12 days and involved 29 witnesses, including Liberal senators Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds, in whose office the assault is alleged to have taken place.
Lehrmann was granted bail until February when there will be a retrial.
Lehrmann’s barrister Steven Whybrow told reporters that as much as he’d like to make comment it was “inappropriate and irresponsible” to say anything at this stage but that “obviously everyone’s disappointed” about today’s events.
McCallum told reporters in the courtroom that after reporting the outcome of today, they should “fall silent” and give the complainant and defendant “respite from the intensive glare of the media” that has been ongoing throughout the trial.
