Juror brought MORE banned documents into court during trial of Brittany Higgins’ accused rapist

Brittany Higgins is pictured arriving at the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday

A juror in the trial of Brittany Higgins’ accused rapist has admitted to taking three forbidden documents into the court. 

Bruce Lehrmann’s sexual assault trial was aborted in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday morning after a sheriff’s officer found an academic research paper about sexual assault in the jury room.

Chief Justice Lucy McCallum was left with no choice but to dismiss the jury and tentatively reschedule the trial for February 2023. 

After jurors were dismissed, court sheriffs found two more banned documents in the jury room.

According to a written judgement released by Justice McCallum, the additional papers were also articles about sexual assault, and belonged to the same juror.

Lehrmann had been accused of raping the ex-Liberal staffer in Parliament House after a night out in Canberra in March 2019. He pleaded not guilty to a single charge of sexual intercourse without consent. 

On Thursday morning, he was able to leave the court knowing he may not have to go back until February 20, 2023 – when the trial is tentatively scheduled to start all over again. 

The jury member will not be punished for upending the almost four-week trial. 

Bruce Lehrmann had been charged with sexual intercourse without consent. He is pictured outside the ACT Supreme Court

After dismissing the jury on Thursday morning, the chief justice told the court the documents were found ‘inadvertently’ – when one of the sheriff’s officers  accidentally bumped one of the juror’s document folders onto the floor.

When the officer picked it up, they found what was later confirmed to be an academic research paper about the prevalence of false sexual assault claims.

The juror said in closed court that the document had not been used or relied upon during deliberations, however, when the court reopened the chief justice said she couldn’t rely upon that explanation. 

The fact that it was found in the jury room at all, Justice McCallum said, meant it could have influenced that juror’s contribution to deliberations and tainted the opinions of all 12 members.

Once the jurors were discharged, the chief justice told the court: ‘During the course of the trial, on my calculation, the jury must have been given at least 17, and possibly more, warnings.’ 

An emotional Brittany Higgins is seen leaving the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday morning

The judge then quoted lines from her opening remarks to the jury on the day they were empaneled on October 4.

‘You mustn’t try to undertake your own inquiries or try to re-enact any aspect of the offence or consider any external evidence about the consumption of alcohol or about any matter that might arise during the trial.

‘You must rest exclusively on the evidence you hear in this courtroom.’

Justice McCallum said they should only ever learn something new about the trial if they are in her presence. 

‘If you find yourself getting curious and undertaking internet research or talking to people about their areas of expertise, think to yourself, ‘Well, Chief Justice McCallum isn’t here so I probably shouldn’t be doing this’.’

She also made it clear that jurors are not ‘investigators’, and should not appoint themselves as such.