Jury 'unable to reach unanimous verdict' in trial of Bruce Lehrmann, charged with raping Brittany Higgins

An ACT Supreme Court jury of eight women and four men has been deliberating since last Wednesday afternoon in the case of Bruce Lehrmann, who denies raping Brittany Higgins.

Former Liberal Party staffer Lehrmann, 27, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of engaging in sexual intercourse without consent.

He denies any sexual activity with Ms Higgins in the early hours of March 23, 2019, when he allegedly raped her on a couch in the ministerial office of Senator Linda Reynolds.

On Tuesday afternoon, the jury's fifth day of deliberations, its members sent Chief Justice Lucy McCallum a note to say they were deadlocked.

The territory's top judge told jurors while she had the power to discharge them without a verdict being reached, experience showed juries were often able to agree with more time.

Chief Justice McCallum reminded members of the jury they were obliged to only return a true and correct verdict, warning them not to join with others in a decision they did not honestly believe to be right.

Jurors retired again to continue deliberating for about 10 minutes, then sent another note informing the judge they wished to go home and return on Wednesday morning.

Chief Justice McCallum accordingly sent them on their way, urging them to put the case out of their minds overnight.

"Go and hit the gym or walk the dog, or do whatever you need to do," she said.

Lehrmann's trial, which began three weeks ago, has heard he and Ms Higgins had only worked together for about three weeks when they went to Parliament House on a Saturday morning, following what prosecutor Shane Drumgold SC has called "a drunken night out".

Defence barrister Steven Whybrow has argued Ms Higgins "doesn't know what happened", such was her level of intoxication after drinking heavily with Lehrmann and others at two Canberra venues.

Mr Whybrow has suggested Ms Higgins fabricated the rape claim out of fear for her job when, three days after the alleged rape, she was confronted over her entry to the minister's office being "a security breach".

But Mr Drumgold has told the jury Ms Higgins is "an inherently credible witness", who was telling all manner of people the same consistent story before publicly revealing the alleged rape and pursuing a formal police complaint in February 2021.

He closed his case by arguing Ms Higgins was "right to be scared" of reporting Lehrmann to police, describing her as a young lady caught "in the middle of strong political forces".

MORE COVERAGE OF THE TRIAL: