Bruce Lehrmann suffers legal defeat as he tries to halt rape trial in Toowoomba
Lehrmann's Sydney-based solicitor Zali Burrows on Friday took aim at Queensland police after withdrawing a bid to prove officers had illegally recorded two conversations between Lehrmann and his previous legal team.
Burrows had also been seeking a court injunction to prevent police recording any future conversations with any of Lehrmann's legal representatives.
Lehrmann, 30, appeared by phone on Friday when the matter was heard at Toowoomba district court.
Judge Benedict Power dismissed the application after the claims were withdrawn by Burrows, who conceded her entire case would depend on proving officers had broken the law in Queensland.
Outside court, Burrows told reporters she would never again speak to a Queensland police officer on the phone.
'All I can say is that it's another world in the state of Queensland,' she said.
Burrows' application was part of a wider bid to seek a permanent stay on proceedings which, if granted, would halt a pending trial against Lehrmann on two counts of rape.
Lehrmann, who is on bail, is accused of raping a woman twice during the morning of 10 October, 2021 after they allegedly met at a strip club the previous night in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
The former ministerial staffer to the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds was charged in January 2023 and is yet to formally enter a plea.
But his former solicitor had previously told a magistrate he intended to contest the charges.
Burrows on Friday agreed with the judge's contention that the officers might have followed proper procedure for keeping accurate notes during the early stages of an investigation.
'You need to establish as a matter of law that what (the investigating detective) did was unlawful,' Power said.
Burrows said police would have an 'unfair tactical advantage' if they had a recording of any conversation where a lawyer accidentally disclosed legally confidential material.
Power said that would not be the fault of police and any of Lehrmann's solicitors could make a separate claim if there was confidential material.
The Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco was not required to argue in court against Burrows except to agree with Power's proposed order to dismiss.
She told Power the application to halt the trial could only be heard once all other applications were dealt with.
Power told the lawyers they needed to be in a position by 31 July to nominate a date for when the trial might begin.
Burrows told Power that while Lehrmann's previous solicitor had indicated he would make an application for a judge-only trial, her client no longer had a position on whether any trial should be heard by a jury.
The matter will return to court on 28 August for a hearing concerning Burrows' efforts to subpoena the commissioner of Queensland police for access to all materials involved in the case.
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