Lehrmann moves to stop rape case over tapped calls

Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer has lodged an application to have his rape case permanently halted after police illegally tapped phone calls.

Exclusive: Bruce Lehrmann has asked a court to permanently halt his rape case following evidence that police illegally intercepted his lawyer’s phone calls.

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.

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

The application, seen by this masthead, was lodged in response to an affidavit filed by the practice manager at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on Friday.

According to the affidavit, the public prosecutor was only made aware last Wednesday that the arresting office in the case, Detective Senior Constable Ashlee 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 – who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Bruce Lehrmann has asked a court to permanently halt his rape case following evidence that police illegally intercepted his lawyer’s phone calls. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

Queensland laws allow individuals to record private conversation that they are involved in, without the consent of other participants. However, Lehrmann’s lawyers have all been based in NSW, where a private conversation can only be recorded without the other party’s consent in certain circumstances.

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.”

Police have a duty to disclose all relevant material collected during an investigation to prosecutors.

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

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.

In criminal law, opposing parties are obliged to disclose all material relevant to the case – whether it’s favourable or not.

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. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

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.”

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.

Ms Burrows has called for an urgent directions hearing this week.

Originally published as Lehrmann moves to stop rape case over tapped calls