Australia: Rape retrial against Bruce Lehrmann dropped due to fears over accuser Higgins's mental health
Australia rape case
The rape case retrial against former political adviser Bruce Lehrmann has been dropped, as it poses a "significant and unacceptable risk" to the woman complainant's life.The 27-year-old former adviser was accused of raping his colleague Brittany Higgins inside Australia's Parliament House.
As per the accuser, on March 22, 2019, Lehrmannsexually assaulted her on a minister's sofa after a night out. She said both had drinks with colleagues and others and she later fell asleep on a sofa in defence industry minister Linda Reynolds's office, and had woken up to find Lehrmann having sex with her.
Lehrmann denied doing so. He maintained that no sex took place. His lawyer said that Higgins's accusations are "totally and utterly inconsistent."
However, the prosecutor said that the ongoing risk to Higgins's mental health for retrial is not in the public interest.
The case was dropped in October due to misconduct by the jury. This is because after 12 days of testimony and five days of discussion in the trial,it was found that one of the jurors had brought in academic research papers looking at false accusations in the sexual assault case.
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Watch |Australia rape case: Brittany Higgins vs Bruce Lehrmann; After a 12-day trial, Jury discharged
Higgins's friend Emma Webster said that she is currently in the hospital for treatment to deal with the trauma of the alleged incident. In a statement, Webster said that the last couple of years were difficult for Higgins and that she is disappointed that the trial has ended in this way.
Higgins waived her right to privacy by disclosing her narrative to authorities in early 2021 and went public with her allegations in some television interviews.
Heraccusations acted as the catalyst for Australia's "Me Too moment," which then sparked demonstrations over women's safety. She reported her case days after the incident as she feared for her career, a jury head claimed.
The incident led to a damning review the finding of which showed that a third of the woman employees in the federal parliament had faced sexual harassment.
(With inputs from agencies)
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