Bruce Lehrmann breaks his silence as he faces Queensland court for his second rape trial

Bruce Lehrmann will appear at Toowoomba Magistrates Court at 9am on Monday over allegations he raped a woman, aged 29, in October 2021.

He met the woman at a local strip club called ‘The Vault’, before the pair returned to his friend’s house.

She alleges that they were fully clothed in bed, they kissed and she told him to put on a condom. He then alleges that he woke up to her and found him having sex with her.

The woman also alleges that she woke up the next morning to find him having sex with her again and told him to stop. She alleges that she felt groggy when they had sex for the third time.

He allegedly did not have a condom and they went to a pharmacy to buy the morning after pill, and on the way home they went to McDonald’s.

Lehrmann was charged with two counts of rape in January 2023.

The alleged victim will be questioned during Monday’s pretrial hearing, which was scheduled to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to take the matter to trial.

If committed and Lehrmann pleads not guilty, the case will go to trial.

Monday will be Lehrmann’s first time in court on the matter.

After being charged, Lehrmann was known only as a “high-profile man” in media reports about the allegations.

However, his identity was revealed after Queensland legislation was changed to allow people accused of sexual offenses to be identified before being put on trial.

After the law changed, the former political staffer lost his subsequent attempt to seek a non-publication order to continue protecting his identity.

Two months before meeting the Toowoomba woman in 2021, he had been accused of sexually assaulting his former colleague Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019.