Bruce Lehrmann, a former staffer for the Liberal party, has changed his solicitors just before his expected trial on two counts of rape. Zali Burrows, a Sydney-based lawyer, announced on Monday that she will now represent Lehrmann in the Queensland district court at Toowoomba.
Lehrmann is accused of raping a woman twice on October 10, 2021, after they met at a strip club the previous night in Toowoomba. Rowan King, a lawyer based on the Sunshine Coast, had previously represented Lehrmann throughout the criminal matter in Queensland, with the case initially mentioned in court in January 2023.
Lehrmann has been committed to stand trial, and King informed Judge Dennis Lynch in January that they intended to apply for a judge-alone trial. In Queensland, a trial can be held without a jury if the court believes it will be lengthy or complex, or if there has been significant pre-trial publicity that may affect jury deliberations.
Burrows has informed the district court registry that she is now representing Lehrmann. She previously defended him in Hobart Magistrates Court in Tasmania, where he is charged with motor vehicle theft. It is alleged that Lehrmann stole a Toyota Prado from Mountain River, south-west of Hobart, on November 20.
Lehrmann has yet to enter pleas for the charges in Toowoomba and Tasmania. His legal team in Toowoomba has indicated they will defend both charges. Burrows has also acted for Lehrmann in the federal court in Sydney, where he is appealing the outcome of a defamation case against Network Ten.
Lehrmann had sued Network Ten over a report that aired in February 2021, which featured Brittany Higgins alleging she was sexually assaulted in Parliament House in March 2019. The report also mentioned allegations against Lehrmann. Justice Michael Lee ruled in April that Lehrmann was not defamed because the allegations were substantially true, and a criminal case against him in the ACT supreme court was dropped in 2022 due to juror misconduct.
The pre-trial directions hearing for Levermann’s Toowoomba case is scheduled for March 27.
