Bruce Lehrmann: 'Shroud of secrecy' claim as ex Liberal party staffer’s rape trial mentioned in Toowoomba court

Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer believes there is a “shroud of secrecy” over an investigation into allegations the former Liberal Party staffer raped a woman after a night out.

Lehrmann is set to face a trial accused of raping a woman twice during the morning of October 10, 2021, after they met at a strip club the previous night in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

The case was mentioned in Toowoomba District Court on Thursday.

His lawyer Zali Burrows complained to Judge Dennis Lynch that the prosecution was not disclosing information she sought from its brief of evidence.

“In respect to the status of the brief, there does appear to be a shroud of secrecy over the investigation of this matter,” she said.

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

The defence also received 200 heavily redacted pages of the alleged victim’s phone records out of 2200 identified in a report.

“It stands materially that it has cherry-picked the text exchanges, which is quite concerning,” Ms Burrows told Judge Lynch.

“It’s not a case of the Crown determining what is materially relevant to the defence case.

“We are having issues with full-service redactions and what we view as non-disclosure of police notebooks and diaries.”

The defence has filed an application for full access to the alleged victim’s unredacted phone records and disclosure of all police notebooks, diaries, emails and text messages in respect to the investigation.

Ms Burrows expects that once this material is handed over, it will provide extra evidence for the defence’s case.

At an earlier hearing, Ms Burrows applied for a complete consolidated brief of evidence after claiming the defence was missing nine witness statements and also important CCTV recordings.

She confirmed on Thursday that this material was provided but there had been an issue with the video files.

The matter was adjourned for a hearing on June 20.

Lehrmann, 29, was formerly employed as a ministerial staffer in the Parliament House office of Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds.

The alleged victim previously told Toowoomba Magistrates Court she consumed cocaine with Lehrmann during a night out before consensual sex at a house in the rural city’s east about 4am.

The woman said she was woken about 10am by Lehrmann sexually assaulting her.

Lehrmann’s former defence barrister Andrew Hoare said at a prior committal hearing that the alleged victim was too intoxicated to remember giving consent and Lehrmann could have mistakenly believed he had consent for further sex acts.

His former solicitor Rowan King previously told Judge Lynch their legal team would apply for the trial to be heard without a jury, with a judge determining the verdict.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) / National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028.