OPINION
Well, it’s official, now: Australia’s worst-kept secret is finally, legally, public. The “high profile Australian man” facing rape charges in Queensland is Bruce Lehrmann.
Lehrmann was, famously, accused of rape by former fellow parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins — a case which collapsed without a verdict ever being reached. The ramifications of that case are still reverberating through Australia’s legal, political and media institutions.
Now, here we go again.
Naturally, the feral online left were cock-a-whoop when a long-standing gag order was finally lifted, this week. Not, of course, that this had stopped a great many from flagrantly breaching the law and naming Lehrmann, anyway.
So, what’s happening with this new case?
Well, it being sub judice, I’ll simply relate what’s been told to the courts, so far. I’ll leave it to BFD readers to judge the merits of the allegations to date for themselves.
Bruce Lehrmann has been charged with rape after a young woman he met in a Toowoomba strip club Googled the Brittany Higgins rape case and then alleged she recognised him as the man who had unprotected sex with her without consent.
The alleged victim told police she realised it was the same man who introduced himself as “Bryce” when they met at the club in October 2021, only a few weeks after he first appeared in court over allegations he raped Ms Higgins in Parliament House.
Mr Lehrmann allegedly had consensual sex with the woman that night but failed to wear a condom when they had sex twice the next morning. Failing to wear a condom without a partner’s permission is considered sexual assault under Queensland law.
The allegations are a saga of alcohol, drugs, partying and hookup sex. At issue, then is the claim that Lehrmann failed to wear a condom the next morning.
After establishing that he had ejaculated inside her, the woman said she told Mr Lehrmann she needed to get the morning-after pill. The pair then drove to a nearby pharmacy to get the morning-after pill, and she asked him to drive her home.
On the way, they stopped to pick up coffee from a McDonald’s drive-thru before Mr Lehrmann dropped her at her own home.
Over the following week, the pair engaged in conversation over social media platform SnapChat but soon lost contact.
So, that appeared to be that.
Until:
The woman says just over six weeks later, in November 2021, she was at home speaking with her flatmate’s mother when the conversation turned to the Higgins case; she decided to search the internet on her phone and realised the man was Mr Lehrmann.
The following day she reported the matter to Toowoomba police and later provided a formal witness statement. The Australian understands police will allege they have CCTV footage from the club showing the pair socialising and leaving together, as well as confirmation of the taxi booking in Mr Lehrmann’s name and receipts for the McDonald’s coffee.
Mr Lehrmann was granted bail after being charged, with conditions including that he not contact the complainant and that he surrender his passport, which was not opposed by police.
His lawyers have sought access to thousands of pages of data and messages from the woman’s phone, for up to six months prior to the date of the incident […]
The alleged rape case returns to the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on November 1.
The Australian
A date which, no doubt, the Australian media will be salivating over.
I wonder if The Project will send Lisa Wilkinson to cover it?