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AAP
AAP
National
Rex Martinich

Lehrmann files anti-corruption complaint over rape case

Bruce Lehrmann is accused of raping a woman after they met at a strip club the previous night. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)

Bruce Lehrmann alleges police engaged in "cowboy-like" misconduct and he has faced political bias in his long-running criminal case over rape charges.

Lehrmann sent a letter of complaint in late June to Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission requesting an investigation into senior figures in the state's former Labor government.

"The nature of these concerns includes ... political influence to lay a charge, political bias or other conflicts of interest," he stated.

Lehrmann, 30, is 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.

In a letter seen by AAP, the former Liberal staffer asked the commission to investigate senior prosecutors and to refer allegations of misconduct to the Queensland police ethical standards command.

Lawyer Zali Burrows
Lawyer Zali Burrows claims police improperly withheld material from scrutiny by defence lawyers. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Lehrmann's solicitor, Zali Burrows, in June filed an application for a permanent stay to his pending District Court trial, which included allegations police had illegally recorded his legal representative's phone conversations.

Burrows claimed police had improperly withheld material in the case from scrutiny by defence lawyers.

"Without the critical analysis and investigation from Ms Burrows, this cowboy-like conduct may never have been brought to light," Lehrmann said in his complaint.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Queensland Police declined to comment because the matter was before the courts.

Queensland Labor has been contacted for comment.

Lehrmann was charged in Toowoomba in January 2023 and Labor lost power in Queensland at an election in October 2024.

In his complaint Lehrmann said he feared a similar situation as alleged by an inquiry into his prosecution for allegedly raping fellow staffer Brittany Higgins in a Parliament House office in 2019.

Board of inquiry head Walter Sofronoff accused then ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold of treating criminal trials like "a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards".

Mr Drumgold later succeeded in having the ACT Supreme Court strike out Mr Sofronoff's findings against him.

The trial on the charge of raping Ms Higgins was aborted in 2023 because of misconduct by a juror.

Walter Sofronoff
Walter Sofronoff headed an inquiry into the Brittany Higgins-Bruce Lehrmann investigation. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)

Lehrmann lost a defamation trial against Network Ten after a Federal Court judge found in 2024, to the civil standard of proof, that he raped Ms Higgins.

Lehrmann is appealing against the Federal Court judgment.

Ms Burrows' application to permanently halt the rape trial will face a hearing on July 25 in Toowoomba District Court.

Lehrmann, a former ministerial staffer to Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, has yet to formally enter a plea but his former solicitor has previously told a magistrate he intended to contest the charges.

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

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

Lehrmann's former defence barrister previously said the alleged victim could have been too intoxicated to remember giving consent and Lehrmann could have mistakenly believed he had consent.

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