Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann will be retried next year over the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has confirmed.
Mr Lehrmann faces a single charge of sexual assault over the alleged incident in Parliament House in 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty and has denied that any sexual activity occurred.
Mr Lehrmann had been under trial in the ACT Supreme Court earlier this month.
However, after 12 days of hearings and more than five days of jury deliberations, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum discharged the jurors after discovering that one of them had engaged in misconduct.
That juror had brought academic research related to rape allegations into the jury room. When reaching a verdict, jurors are only allowed to deliberate on evidence that was presented during the trial.
The court had set a retrial date of February 20, 2023, pending the prosecution's decision to proceed.
Today, ACT DPP Shane Drumgold, who ran the prosecution during the initial trial, confirmed he would pursue a retrial.
Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins were colleagues working for then cabinet minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019, when the alleged assault took place.
