Bruce Lehrmann's claim phone call recordings were 'illegally obtained' in Toowoomba rape case dismissed
Mr Lehrmann is facing two counts of rape which are alleged to have occurred in Toowoomba in October 2021.
He was not present in the Toowoomba District Court for a pre-trial hearing on Friday where his Sydney-based lawyer Zali Burrows appeared on his behalf.
Ms Burrows's application for a "declaration that intercepted phone calls between the 30-year-old's lawyers and Queensland Police Service (QPS) [were] illegally obtained" was due to be heard in the court today.
But within 40 minutes of the hearing getting underway, Ms Burrows withdrew the claim, which was then formally dismissed by order of Judge Benedict Power.
The defence application related initially to four telephone conversations — two between a police officer and Mr Lehrmann's former lawyers and two between a police officer and legal receptionist.
Ms Burrows's decision to withdraw the application came after Judge Benedict Power put a set of propositions to her including that it was quite usual for police and defence lawyers to discuss a matter.
Ms Burrows agreed with all of his points.
She also agreed there might be circumstances in which a defence lawyer may unknowingly breach legal privilege in such a conversation.
Judge Power asked Ms Burrows if she agreed that to succeed in her application, the recording of the conversation must be illegal under either Queensland or federal law -- which it is not.
Ms Burrows replied that in future she would not enter into any phone conversations with any Queensland officers and would confine all communication to writing.
Judge Power asked Ms Burrows whether she no longer wished to press her claim.
"Yes, Your Honour … I will simply refuse to speak to police on the phone and confine it to writing," Ms Burrows replied.
The Sydney-based lawyer repeated this outside court, telling reporters: "All I can say is it's another world in the state of Queensland. "
Ms Burrows denied it had been a legal tactic.
"It wasn't a legal move, but can I just say we got some very important material today received on return of subpoena which will certainly support our stay application."
In court, Ms Burrows also told Judge Power that her client was yet to decide whether to pursue a jury or judge-alone trial.
"Mr Lehrmann has not made a decision yet," Ms Burrows said.
Judge Power urged Ms Burrows and the parties to move to set a trial date for the matter.
But before that can occur there are more hearings related to defence applications to receive unredacted versions of police notebooks and diary entries and from the forensic download of the complainant's mobile phone.
Mr Lehrmann will also pursue a permanent stay of the charges against him when the matter returns to court next month.
The case has been before the Toowoomba District Court on numerous occasions amid wrangling between the Crown and defence over disclosure of the police brief of evidence against Mr Lehrmann.
He has not yet been required to formally enter a plea to the indictment, but it is understood he will defend the charges.
The matter returns to court for mention on July 31 and for a hearing on August 28.
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