A former parliamentary staffer is accused of raping a colleague in the defense minister’s office. The judge said a juror had brought an article on sexual assault cases into the jury room against her instructions.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian court discharged a jury on Thursday in the trial of a former government adviser accused of sexually assaulting a colleague in Parliament House, after it said a juror got access to details that were not submitted as evidence.
After a week of jury deliberations the case reached a crescendo at breakneck speed – and the chaos of those final moments didn’t stop with the decision
Brittany Higgins’ tearful speech outside the Supreme Court on Thursday has been brought to the attention of the court and the Australian Federal Police by Bruce Lehrmann’s legal team.
the message from the un today is clear. unless we raise ambition in egypt, the world will face far greater extremes. justin rowlatt, bbc news, the un hq in new york. the trial of a former political adviser in australia who was charged with raping a colleague inside parliament has been abandoned. bruce lehrmann had denied assaulting brittany higgins three years ago. our correspondent, shaimaa khalil in sydney told me what happened. the jury was discharged because it emerged that one member had actually been looking at an academic research paper about sexual assault that was not part of the evidence presented to court during the trial. the chiefjustice lucy mccallum said that while this may not have done any harm during the deliberations, this was not a risk she was willing to take. she also said that she estimated that she d warned the jury members about 17 times if not more not to read external material,