Bruce Lehrmann, a former Liberal Party official, has been charged with rape; his defence is scheduled to contend he has no case to answer.
The hearing has been deferred.
Attending a Queensland magistrates court for the first time since being charged with rape more than a year ago, Lehrmann, 29, on Monday Part of a protracted procedure to ascertain whether the matter will go to trial, the committal hearing at Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, Before Magistrate Mark Howden decided the committal be postponed until July 4, private court heard testimony from the claimed victim.
Saying he will make oral arguments for a no-case motion next month, defense lawyer Andrew Hoare turned up a 12-page written submission from Lehrmann.
Hoare remarked, “as foreshadowed, they are submissions in respect to the sufficiency of the evidence to place my client on trial.”
Howden let Lehrmann appear via videolink next month and kept his bail going.
Lehrmann had flown from interstate to make it to the court; crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald did not object to him not having to show up personally next month.
After turning in a fresh statement from the claimed victim, Friedewald declared the case for the prosecution was closed.
Saying it would be prejudiced against Lehrmann, Howden had earlier turned down an application for reporters to stay in the courtroom while the claimed victim gave evidence.
“I acknowledge the public interest, however… the matter ought to proceed in the ordinary way,” he stated.
Lehrmann had not attended court for the matter until Monday, although initially charged in January 2023. Media surrounded him when he got there.
Presumably in regard to the former Nine Entertainment chairman reportedly shoving over a journalist, he asked, “Where is Peter Costello when you need him?”
Lehrmann’s lawyers have indicated he denies two counts of raping a woman at Toowoomba in October 2021.
Friedewald presented a list of witnesses and artifacts including several police detectives and other personnel.
Barrister for News Corp, ABC and Nine Network, Jess Goldie, sought for reporters to stay in the courtroom while the claimed victim testified from elsewhere.
Goldie ruled the great public interest in the case justified reporters staying to guarantee fair and truthful reporting.
Hoare, the claimed victim and the crown prosecutor, opposed it.
Denying the application, Howden directed the public gallery of the packed courtroom to be emptied.
Following Queensland’s legislative change in October 2023 to no longer forbid the broadcast of the names of anyone accused of certain sex offences prior to facing trial, defence lawyers had launched a weeks-long legal campaign to preserve Lehrmann’s identity.
Once the Queensland Supreme Court rejected Lehrmann an ongoing non-publication of his identity, he could be found.
While both were employed by the senator, national media focused on him following charges of rape of Brittany Higgins in the office of then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds at Parliament House in March 2019.
Lehrmann refuted the claims, and the case came out as mistrialed with prosecutors dismissing the charge and postponing a fresh trial out of concern for Higgins’s mental state.
Lehrmann began defamation lawsuits against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in November 2023 on allegations The Project program had found him to have raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
On the weight of evidence, Justice Michael Lee in April 2024 concluded that Lehrmann followed the civil standard and dismissed his lawsuit.
Rape Higgins was found guilty. May saw Lehrmann file an appeal.
