Brittany Higgins has released a statement after prosecutors dropped a rape charge against Bruce Lehrmann.Credit:Rhett Wyman
“The criminal justice system has long failed to deliver outcomes” in sexual assault cases,she said. “I knew the odds were stacked against me from the outset.”
On Friday,ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions announced a retrial against Lehrmann over the alleged rape Higgins had been aborted,and the charges dropped because of serious concerns for Higgins’ mental health.
Shane Drumgold,SC,said it was no longer in the public interest to continue because of the risk to Higgins’ life.
Loading
“I’ve recently received really compelling evidence from medical experts that the ongoing trauma associated with this prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk for the life of the complainant,” Drumgold said on Friday.
Lehrmann was accused of raping Higgins in the office of their then-boss,Liberal minister Linda Reynolds,in Parliament House in the early hours of March 23,2019,after a night out drinking with colleagues.
He faced one charge of sexual intercourse without consent. Lehrmann had denied ever having sex with Higgins and described himself as behaving like a “gentleman” on the night.