Brittany Higgins is temporarily unavailable to continue her evidence in the ongoing trial of Bruce Lehrmann, who is accused of raping her in parliament house in March 2019.
The ACT supreme court chief justice, Lucy McCallum, told the jury on Monday that Higgins was unavailable.
McCallum said the trial would proceed with other evidence.
“We have a development this morning which is that the complainant is unavailable today,” the judge said. “We propose to deal with that by calling some other witnesses but the prosecutor needs a bit of time.”
Lehrmann is accused of raping Higgins, his colleague and fellow political staffer, in the early hours of 23 March 2019 on a couch opposite the desk of their boss, the then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds.
Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty and is fighting one charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
Last week, Higgins faced cross-examination by Lehrmann’s defence counsel Steven Whybrow.
The trial entered its second week on Monday. It is expected to last at least four weeks.
