Brittany Higgins: Jurors in Bruce Lerman’s rape trial will return on Monday

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

He pleaded not guilty to having sex without her consent and being reckless with her consent.

Late Wednesday afternoon, 12 jurors retired to consider a verdict after hearing testimony from 29 witnesses in a politically and emotionally charged trial.

In her final instructions, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum told jurors to make a clinical assessment of the evidence.

She told them they were “not answerable in this court to public opinion.”

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

How long the jury will deliberate before reaching a verdict is unknown.

The trial, originally scheduled to last six weeks, came to a close after less than 12 days in court.

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

“This case is about what happened on the sofa in the room on Saturday 23rd March 2019.”

But defense barrister Steve Whybrow told the court his “best way” to sum up the case was “Miss Higgins doesn’t know what happened”.

“We cannot be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that she knows what happened,” he told jurors.

Originally published as Bruce Lerman’s rape trial will continue on Monday