Bruce Lehrmann has been ordered to stand trial on the charges of rape. The 29-year-old is accused of committing two counts of rape in Toowoomba, located west of Brisbane, in October 2021.
Magistrate Mark Howden, found enough grounds to commit Lehrmann to trial on Thursday, refusing his argument that he had no case to answer.
Howden said, ‘Based on the available evidence, I believe there is enough to convince a jury that the defendant is guilty, assuming they receive proper instructions’.
The Toowoomba district court will hear the trial at a date yet to be set. A crowded courtroom was presented with details that were mutually agreed upon by Lehrmann’s barrister, Andrew Hoare KC, and the prosecutor, Nicole Friedewald, concerning the events of the night and the morning after October 9, 2021.
Lehrmann and the complainant, who cannot legally be named, agreed to meet at a strip club after both had been drinking alcohol and the complainant had taken cocaine.
They both proceeded to use cocaine together. In the early hours of the morning, they took a taxi to a residence in Toowoomba where Lehrmann’s schoolmate lived. There, they engaged in consensual sexual activity.
However, the complainant claims she woke up to see Lehrmann on top penetrating her without a condom, despite her having insisted upon contraception during their earlier consensual encounter.
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