Jury deliberations in Bruce Lehrmann rape trial to continue on Monday

Deliberations in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann, accused of raping former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, will spill over to next week.

A jury in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann will return on Monday after deliberations adjourned for the weekend.

Mr Lehrmann is accused of raping former colleague Brittany Higgins in Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office at Parliament House after a night out drinking with work colleagues in March 2019.

He has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without her consent and being reckless to her consent.

Bruce Lehrmann left the court on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

On late Wednesday afternoon, the 12 jurors retired to consider the verdict after hearing evidence from 29 witnesses in the politically and emotionally charged trial.

In her final directions, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum told jurors to clinically assess the evidence.

She told them they were “not answerable in this trial to popular opinion”.

It came after four of the 16 jurors were “voted off the island” by a random ballot, leaving eight women and four men to decide Mr Lehrmann’s fate.

It’s unknown how long the jury will deliberate before returning a verdict.

Brittany Higgins was a former Liberal staffer. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The trial, which was originally set down for six weeks, drew to a close after less than 12 days in court.

In his closing address, Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold said the trial was not about “political movements” or workplace culture.

“This case is about what happened on a couch in a room on Saturday the 23 of March 2019.”

But defence barrister Steve Whybrow told the court that his “kindest way” of summing up the case was “Ms Higgins doesn’t know what happened”.

“We can’t be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that she knows what happened,” he told the jury.

Originally published as Jury deliberations in Bruce Lehrmann rape trial to continue on Monday