The judge presiding over the Bruce Lehrmann trial has told the jury there is “no rush” after it questioned whether there were “time expectations” on reaching its verdict.
The 12-person jury has been deliberating since Wednesday afternoon and the court heard on Monday morning it had not yet reached a verdict beyond reasonable doubt.
In a note to the court, the jury asked whether there were any time pressures on making a decision.
Chief justice Lucy McCallum told jurors they should not feel any pressure to reach a verdict quickly, even if they felt that people were waiting on their decision.
“You take all the time that you need ... we’ll hear from you when we hear from you,” she said.
She told them she had had juries deliberating for longer than they had.
“There’s no rush, there’s no time limit,” McCallum said. “The only expectation is that you remain true to your oath.”
The judge called jurors back into court at 4pm on Monday to send them home. The jury will continue deliberations on Tuesday.
Lehrmann is accused of raping fellow political staffer Brittany Higgins on a couch opposite the desk of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in the early hours of 23 March 2019.
He denies the allegation and has pleaded not guilty, and is fighting one charge of sexual intercourse without consent at trial in the ACT supreme court. The trial has taken place over three weeks.
The prosecution’s case is that Higgins is a reliable and honest complainant, who remained consistent in her account of the alleged rape to multiple colleagues, friends, police and family members in the days, weeks, and months after 23 March 2019.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold SC says Lehrmann lied about his reasons for visiting parliament after 1.30am, telling police he was there to pick up keys and work on question time briefs while saying to his superiors he had been there to drink whisky after a night out at Canberra bars.
Lehrmann says no sex – consensual or non-consensual – occurred and his barrister Steven Whybrow has accused Higgins of fabricating the allegations because she feared for her job after being found by security naked in her minister’s office.
