Bruce Lehrmann says he’s entitled to $6million compensation because he says he’s innocent and may never work again following rape allegations

Bruce Lehrmann says he’s entitled to $6M compensation because he says he’s innocent and may never work again following rape allegations.

The trial of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins has been a gift to critics of the #MeToo movement.

It is a bitter irony, or perhaps bitterly apt, that the trial was aborted last year after a juror brought into the deliberation room an academic paper about the incidence of false complaints of rape. The paper had not been presented in evidence, and jurors are bound to decide their verdict only on evidence led in court.

“Not that I might have 40 years of economic loss; I will never, ever be able to work again.

“So that needs to be factored in — after being smeared and slammed as I have for the last two or three years now.”

Mr Lehrmann also repeated he was innocent.

“I mean, if we were able to have a fair trial and a trial at all, it would have rendered a not-guilty verdict for me,” he said.

The discovery of the unauthorised material meant the presiding judge, Justice Lucy McCallum, was forced to declare a mistrial.

One imagines there was a lively debate among the jurors about whether Higgins had made up her claim, and how common it was for women to do so. Even within the sanctum of the jury room, it seems the case was a totem for the broader debate around sexual assault.

“Not that I might have 40 years of economic loss; I will never, ever be able to work again.

“So that needs to be factored in — after being smeared and slammed as I have for the last two or three years now.”

Mr Lehrmann also repeated he was innocent.

“I mean, if we were able to have a fair trial and a trial at all, it would have rendered a not-guilty verdict for me,” he said.

Mr Lehrmann was accused of raping his then-colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

However, his trial was aborted last year after a juror engaged in misconduct while the jury was deliberating.

A retrial was then scrapped due to concerns about Ms Higgins’s mental health.

Mr Lehrmann maintains he is innocent. There have been no findings against him.

Last week, the findings of an ACT board of inquiry into the handling of Mr Lehrmann’s case were made public.

The inquiry — akin to a royal commission and led by former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff — accused Mr Drumgold of engaging in “serious misconduct” during the investigation and trial.