By Rex Martinich in Brisbane
Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann has changed solicitors months before he’s expected to stand trial accused of two counts of rape.
Sydney-based lawyer Zali Burrows told AAP on Monday that she was now acting for Lehrmann in the Queensland District Court at Toowoomba.
Lehrmann 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.
Sunshine Coast-based lawyer Rowan King has appeared for Lehrmann throughout his criminal matter in Queensland, which was first mentioned in court in January 2023.
He’s been committed to stand trial and at a mention in Toowoomba in January this year, Mr King told Judge Dennis Lynch that Lehrmann’s barrister would apply for a judge-alone trial.
In Queensland, the grounds for holding a trial without a jury include that the hearings would be lengthy or complex, or both, or “there has been significant pre-trial publicity that may affect jury deliberations”.
Ms Burrows confirmed to AAP that the District Court registry had been informed she was now representing Lehrmann.
She previously represented Lehrmann in Hobart Magistrates Court in Tasmania for the mention of his charge of motor vehicle stealing.
It is alleged the 29-year-old stole a Toyota Prado from Mountain River, a rural area southwest of Hobart, on November 20.
Ms Burrows has also appeared at the Federal Court in Sydney over Lehrmann’s appeal after losing a defamation case he brought against Network Ten, and his attempts to avoid paying costs and sureties.
Lehrmann sued over a February 2021 report on The Project interviewing Brittany Higgins about her allegations she was sexually assaulted in Parliament House in March 2019 while both were employed by Senator Linda Reynolds.
Justice Michael Lee found in April that Lehrmann was not defamed in reports he sexually assaulted Ms Higgins because the allegations were substantially true.
It came after a criminal case against Lehrmann in the ACT Supreme Court was abandoned in 2022 due to juror misconduct with no verdict made against him.
Lehrmann’s Toowoomba case is due for a pre-trial directions hearing on March 27.
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