Former Liberal party staffer Bruce Lehrmann has been named as the “high-profile man” charged with two counts of alleged rape in Toowoomba, Queensland. It has been a long time coming — Lehrmann was initially charged in December last year and had been shrouded in anonymity under Queensland laws that have since changed. Crikey looks back at the long, long timeline of events:
March 23, 2019: The date on which Brittany Higgins, then 24 years old and weeks into a role as media adviser to then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, later alleges she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann in Parliament House. Lehrmann denies the allegation to this day.
February 2021: Higgins goes public with her allegation, giving interviews with Network Ten and news.com.au and asking the AFP to reopen its investigation.
April 2021: Lehrmann is interviewed by police.
August 2021: Lehrmann is charged with allegedly raping Brittany Higgins, and his name is made public for the first time.
October 2022: After a lengthy trial, during which Lehrmann did not give evidence, Justice Lucy McCallum is forced to abandon the trial without a verdict, after it is revealed that a jury member conducted their “own research” despite having been told not to at least “17 times”.
December 2022: It is announced by ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold that, in the interests of Higgins’ health, the second trial will not go ahead.
In the same month, Lehrmann is charged with two counts of rape alleged to have occurred in Toowoomba in October 2021. Under Queensland law at the time, he cannot be named. In the months that follow, he will be referred to only as a “high-profile man” accused of alleged rape.
There is widespread knowledge in media, legal and political circles that Lehrmann is the accused, and he is frequently identified on social media.
February 2023: Lehrmann launches defamation action against Network Ten and news.com.au for their coverage from two years earlier.
May 2023: Lehrmann drops his defamation case against News Corp after the parties reach an out-of-court settlement.
May-June 2023: News Corp produces a series of pieces attacking Ten’s Lisa Wilkinson and poking holes in Higgins’ account of the alleged rape. They, and other outlets, are aided in this by the steady leak of private text and audio messages sent by Higgins and her partner David Sharaz. It is never established exactly where these leaks come from — Lehrmann’s defence denies any involvement.
June-August 2023: Lehrmann gives his first public interview — split over two episodes — to Channel Seven’s Spotlight program, in which he reiterates his contention that the rape “simply didn’t happen”. “Let’s start some fires,” Lehrmann says at one point, adding “Everything needs to be out there, in the open, so people can assess this for what it is”. He further concedes during the interview that his lawyers had advised him against appearing on the program.
In August, Lehrmann is interviewed by Sky News’ Sharri Markson.
September 2023: Queensland laws around the disclosure of the identity of the accused in sexual assault cases — hitherto suppressing identification until they are committed to stand trial — are changed to allow the naming of accused sex offenders once they are charged, the same conditions that exist in most other states and territories. Lehrmann’s lawyers apply for, and are granted, an interim suppression order on naming him on the eve of these changes coming into effect.
October 26, 2023: Lehrmann’s name is made public in relation to the most recent allegations. While his lawyers argue that this puts his mental health at great risk, in his written judgment Justice Peter Applegarth notes the three media interviews Lehrmann had given in the last year:
Rather than lower his public profile and retreat from the media spotlight, the applicant chose for whatever reason to appear more than once on national television and revisit events that had triggered his mental illness in early 2021.
He seemingly felt well enough to engage with sections of the national media, and to deal with any resulting further coverage he received from the media outlets he appeared on and other media that followed up on his high-profile appearances.
Seven claims it is one of the media companies that applied to the magistrates court to name him as soon as he was charged last year — though both the Nine papers and Guardian Australia pointedly say it was not part of the group action that revealed Lehrmann’s name.
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