Urgent hearing for Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case

An urgent hearing has been listed for Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case after his lawyer made a move to stop the matter from proceeding.

An urgent hearing had been called for Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case, after his lawyer lodged an application to block the matter. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

An urgent hearing had been called for Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case, after his lawyer lodged an application to block the matter.

Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows lodged the application on his behalf in Toowoomba District Court on Monday, which included a request for a permanent stay on the criminal proceedings.

The application was in response to an affidavit filed by the public prosecutor on Friday, which said Queensland Police did not hand over all evidence related to the investigation to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).

Further information included a number of separate audio recordings between the arresting officer, Detective Senior Constable Ashlee Ryder and a witness, lawyer, and the alleged victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons.

An urgent hearing has now been listed for 9.30am on Wednesday in the Ipswich District Court before Judge Dennis Lynch.

If the permanent stay application is successful, the rape charges would be dropped and the case would never be heard in court.

An urgent hearing had been called for Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case.Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

According to the affidavit lodged by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on Friday, the public prosecutor was only made aware last Wednesday that Detective Ryder had six items in her possession that were not originally provided to the ODPP as part of the brief of evidence – about two years after Lehrmann was charged with rape.

The items included an audio recording between a witness and Detective Ryder, four audio recordings between Detective Ryder and Lehrmann’s former legal representative, and two audio recordings between Detective Ryder and the alleged victim.

Queensland laws allow individuals to record private conversation that they are involved in, without the consent of other participants. Lehrmann’s lawyers have all been based in NSW.

According to the affidavit, also in Detective Ryder’s possession was a further addendum from the alleged victim that had been drafted but not signed, along with an Excel spreadsheet with Lehrmann’s Snapchat logins, two emails from the alleged victim to Detective Ryder, a screenshot of an ABC article, and two notebooks that were also excluded from the brief provided to the public prosecutor.

The affidavit read: “Detective Senior Constable Ryder confirmed that she was not in possession of anything that may be reasonably considered to be adverse to the reliability or credibility of a proposed witness for the prosecution.”

The ODPP said it would review all material provided by Detective Ryder to determine whether it should be disclosed.

Bruce Lehrmann with his lawyer Zali Burrows in Hobart. Picture: Elise Kaine

In May, when the matter was mentioned in court, Ms Burrows lodged an application on Lehrmann’s behalf demanding the prosecution hand over all relevant evidence in its possession, even if it doesn’t intend on using the material in the case, along with all police investigation notes.

The prosecution previously rejected Ms Burrows’ request for the unredacted contents of the alleged victim’s phone, stating they had extracted and shared all the relevant material.

The ODPP’s affidavit on Friday was filed in response to Ms Burrows’ application in May.

Ms Burrows’ application on Monday called for a series of declarations from Queensland Police in relation to the undisclosed material.

The application called for: “A declaration that intercepted phone calls between Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers and Queensland Police Force was illegally obtained.

“A declaration that Queensland Police Force do not have the power nor the discretion to determine what is relevant to the case, and must disclose all materials and/or the production of the materials to both the prosecution and the accused.”

Zali Burrows, lawyer for Bruce Lehrmann. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

She also took aim at the public prosecutor, asking the office to make a declaration to “ensure that the defendant has a list of all materials and/or production of all the materials obtained in the court of police investigation against the accused, regardless of any police any/or prosecution subjective view to relevance”.

In April, Ms Burrows told the court the ODPP failed to hand over nine witness statements and CCTV recordings and said the matter should not be set down for a pre-trial hearing until the disclosure issues were sorted.

Lehrmann is accused of raping a woman twice after they met at a strip club on October 10, 2021.

The pair allegedly had consensual sex, before alleged victim fell asleep.

She allegedly woke up to find Lehrmann was having sex with her and told him to stop. She made her formal police complaint on November 26, 2021.

Lehrmann is yet to enter a plea, but he is expected to fight the allegations.

Originally published as Urgent hearing for Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case