Bruce Lehrmann touches down in Brisbane as he faces his second allegation of rape in court

EXCLUSIVE

Bruce Lehrmann has landed in Brisbane just hours before his first court appearance on two rape charges.

The former Liberal staffer will appear in the Toowoomba Magistrate’s Court at 9am on Monday over allegations he raped a 29-year-old woman whom he met at local strip club ‘The Vault’ in October 2021.

Just two months earlier, he was accused of sexually assaulting his former colleague Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019.

The woman claimed they had sex once that night and twice in the morning, but claimed the latter two times were not consensual because he was not wearing a condom while she thought he was.

He was charged with two counts of rape because failure to wear a condom without the partner’s consent is considered sexual assault under Queensland law.

On Sunday afternoon, Lehrmann was noticed for the first time since his crushing libel defeat in April, when a Federal Court judge found on a civil scale that he had raped Ms Higgins.

Bruce Lehrmann (right) has not been pictured in public since his failed defamation case in April

Upon arriving at Brisbane Airport carrying a small suitcase on wheels and wearing an RM Williams hat and boots, he was greeted by his lawyer Rowan King.

The pair headed to the car park for the two-hour journey to Lehrmann’s hometown of Toowoomba, where he will face a half-day hearing on Monday.

During the hearing, the alleged victim will be questioned by Lehrmann’s attorneys in an effort to determine if there is enough evidence for a magistrate to take the case to trial.

Lehrmann would only have to enter a plea if the case was committed, but it is clear he plans to plead not guilty.

The court previously heard that the prosecution and defense agreed on points of cross-examination. Lehrmann’s team had requested and received data from the alleged victim’s phone.

Despite being charged with rape in January 2023, Lehrmann did not appear in person at the Toowoomba court.

Bruce Lehrmann and his lawyer queued for the car park on Sunday before driving to Toowoomba

When he was first charged, previous legislation said Lehrmann could not be identified because Queensland banned the media from publicly identifying suspected sex offenders unless cases were taken to court.

Those laws changed in October, meaning Lehrmann could be named and photographed even though the case had not yet been committed.

Lehrmann was tried for Ms Higgins’ rape in the ACT Supreme Court in October 2022, but the case collapsed due to misconduct by a juror.

The charges were subsequently dropped by the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions in December 2022 due to fears for Ms Higgins’ mental health.

Last year, Lehrmann launched a defamation case against Network Ten and The Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson following the original interview with Ms Higgins in February 2021, in which she first went public with her rape allegations.

Brittany Higgins is pictured (center) next to her husband David Sharaz in March

He was not named on the broadcast but claimed friends and colleagues were able to identify him as Ms Higgins’ rapist.

However, the defamation action failed when Judge Michael Lee found, on the balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins in much the manner she described during her television interview.

Photographers chased Lehrmann out of the court and along the highway, as far as Avoca on the Central Coast, before he took refuge in a police station.