Lehrmann to fight to have his Toowoomba rape case thrown out of court

Bruce Lehrmann is fighting to have his Toowoomba rape case thrown out of court, with claims that his lawyer’s phone calls were obtained illegally.

Lehrmann was committed to stand trial last year over allegations he raped a woman he met on a drug-fuelled night in 2021 at a nightclub in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

The former federal Liberal Party staffer is expected to fight the charges.

Lawyer Zali Burrows and Bruce Lehrmann. Credit: Edwina Pickles / Wolter Peeters

Now his lawyer, Zali Burrows, has served an application on the prosecution for a permanent stay of the proceedings.

The documents ask for orders including a declaration that intercepted phone calls between Lehrmann’s lawyers and Queensland police were obtained illegally.

It also includes a declaration that police do not have the power or the discretion to determine what is relevant to a defence case, and must disclose all material to both the prosecution and the accused.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions filed an affidavit in the case on Friday, saying prosecutors had contacted the arresting officer, Detective Senior Constable Ashlee Ryder, recently regarding disclosure of evidence.

The affidavit says Ryder replied to the email, and outlined items in her possession that were not provided as part of the brief to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

According to the documents, the items included an audio recording between a witness and Ryder, two emails from the complainant to Ryder, and two audio recordings between Ryder and the complainant.

The items also included an Excel spreadsheet containing Lehrmann’s Snapchat subscriber information, four audio recordings between Ryder and Lehrmann’s previous lawyers, and a screenshot of an ABC article located by Ryder.

“Detective Senior Constable Ryder confirmed that there were two notebooks in her possession that were not part of the brief provided to the Director of Public Prosecutions. I have sought these items to be provided for disclosure,” the affidavit reads.

The affidavit said Ryder had confirmed all signed statements had been provided.

“[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 affidavit reads.

The case is expected to return to court this week.

In May, Burrows told Judge Dennis Lynch the prosecution was not disclosing information she sought from its brief of evidence, and she believed there was a “shroud of secrecy” over the investigation.

She claimed the prosecution had not confirmed whether there were any police notebooks or diary entries relating to the investigation, which she said was “pretty concerning”. 

At Lehrmann’s committal last year, the court was told the complainant agreed there was initial consensual sex between her and Lehrmann, but the two rape charges related to subsequent acts.

The Crown’s case is that the complainant never consented to sex without a condom, with a magistrate saying at an earlier hearing that the complainant testified she woke to find Lehrmann penetrating her, and she had told him “stop what you are doing”.

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