What You Should Know About Brittany Higgins Sexual Assault Case

Brittany Higgins Sexual Assault case: The world was sent in a wave of shock when the alleged Brittany Higgins Sexual Assault case came to light. Brittany Higgins, who is a former Australian government employee alleged that Bruce Lehrmann, the senior advisor of the Australian Liberal Party, raped her inside the Parliament's office on March 23, 2019.

Earlier, Bruce Lehrmann was a staff member in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds, where the incident reportedly took place. According to reports, after Brittany Higgins went public with her accusations against Lehrmann, three other women also came forward alleging that he had sexually assaulted them. Although, Bruce Lehrmann has denied all the sexual assault claims made by Brittany Higgins.

The Brittani Higgins sexual assault case rose the MeToo Movement in Australia as more women came forward sharing their experience of misconduct by their male colleagues.

Here are 10 things to know about Brittani Higgins sexual assault case:

1. Brittany Higgins accused Bruce Lehrmann of allegedly raping her on March 23, 2019 in the Australian Parliament. The former was reportedly torn between keeping her job and fighting against her perpetrator for justice.
2. She finally chose to break her silence and came forward to seek justice. In February 2021, a legal charge was made against Bruce Lehrmann accusing him of raping Higgins at the Parliament office held by Senator Linda Reynolds.
3. According to Higgins, Lehrmann offered to take her back home after a night out with friends but allegedly assaulted her instead as she fell asleep in the office of defense minister Reynolds.
4. Higgins reportedly approached the police after the incident happened and also told Reynolds about it, however she dropped the case as she was made to believe that she might lose her job if she pursued the case.
5. On February 15, 2021, Higgins went public with two media platforms, News.com.au and The Project, accusing her coworker, who remained unnamed at the time, of sexually assaulting her.
6. Bruce Lehrmann, on the other hand, pleaded not guilty in the case.
7. His lawyers will be moving forward to permanently or temporary stay of the prosecution trial scheduled for June 6.
8. David Campbell, Lehrmann's lawyer, will also reportedly try to convince media companies to voluntarily remove articles about him regarding this matter. If they fail to do so, Lehrmann will supposedly take legal action against them as well as seek an order for future publicity regarding the accusation against them.
9. Lucy McCallum, Chief Justice, has scheduled the hearing seeking stay of prosecution against Lehrmann on April 1.
10. McCallum warned the media companies that the more they attempt to publicise the matter, the more difficult it will become for the accused to receive a fair trial which could ultimately result in the stay.

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