A judge has apologised to a jury before discharging the group of people selected to deliver verdicts in a historical rape trial.
"Regrettably, we've come to a point where I have no alternative but to discharge you," Chief Justice Lucy McCallum told the 12 jurors on Thursday.
The trial of a man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the alleged victim, was in its fourth day when the order was made.
He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, two offences alleging indecent acts, and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
"This trial has not gone smoothly," the judge said.
Why Chief Justice McCallum discharged the jury cannot be reported for legal reasons.
Evidence already heard in the trial included allegations the man had raped his then-partner at least four times in a three-day period sometime in either 2010 or 2011.
During that protracted period of alleged sexual assault, the man is also accused of twice rendering the woman unconscious, at least once with a metal bar, and of stomping on her head.
He also allegedly threatened the woman's "naked vagina" with a Stanley knife and inspected it because he "could tell she had been sleeping with someone".
"He was pretty much just treating me like a piece of meat for three days," the alleged victim said in an interview with police.
The court also heard the man forced his partner to urinate outside for those three days.
"I had to go in the backyard and piss like a dog," the woman said during evidence.
Defence barrister John Purnell SC did not make a bail application for his client on Thursday but indicated he might do so in the future.
"You have my sincerest thanks for your attention," Chief Justice McCallum told jurors before they were discharged.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to nurse it to the point of verdict."
The court heard the defence and prosecution would have further negotiations ahead of the case going before a registrar next month to determine its next steps.
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