Latest / The Front / Bruce Lehrmann’s new rape trial

Transcript

Bruce Lehrmann’s new rape trial · The Front

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Before we begin. This episode contains detailed allegations of sexual
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: assault from the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Claire Harvey. It's Friday, July five. The Albanesi government is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: one senator lighter today after renegade West Australian Fatima Payman
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: quit the Labor Party and announced she'll move to the crossbench.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Payman was disciplined for voting with the Greens on a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: measure supporting Palestine, and now she's refusing to rule out
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: starting a party of her own. Feast Coast of Australia
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: will run out of gas in twenty twenty seven. Without
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: urgent action to find new sources of supply, Australia may
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: even have to import gas. The Australian Competition and Consumer
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Commission says. Bruce Lahman will face a jury into Woomba
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in Queensland, where he's accused of raping a woman he
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: met in a nightclub. Lamon denies any wrongdoing, but hasn't
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: formally entered a plea today. How a trip to visit
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: his hometown turned into Lahman's latest legal nightmare. It's Saturday,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: October ninth, twenty twenty one. Spring in the subtropical Queensland
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: city of to Woomba, where it's humored and warm. Overnight,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Bruce Laman is at The Vault, a strip club on
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Ruthven Street that describes itself as the home of the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: hottest girls in town and Queensland's finest adult venue. It's
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: popular with bucks and hen's parties. There are topless waitresses,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: lap dancers, women dancing on poles, and a bondage room
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: described as a place to explore the boundary between pleasure
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and pain. Lamon meets a young woman and introduces himself
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: as Bryce. She's had some drinks and consumed four lines
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of cocaine, she says, to sober herself up and gain
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: entry to the nightclub after she'd been out drinking with friends.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Around four am on the Sunday October ten, Lamon and
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the woman leave the Vault, climb into a taxi and
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: head to the home of a schoolmate of Laman who
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: grew up into Woomba. They have sex four times, according
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to Laman. They also do some more coke after Lamon
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: finds a package of cocaine in her bra But it's
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: what happens as the sun climbs into the sky on Sunday.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: By twelve noon it's already twenty five degrees. That has
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: sent both their lives in a new direction.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: She alleges she woke up to him inside of her
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to which when she realized, she rolled over and pushed
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: him off, telling him to stop.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Mackenzie Scott is a journalist with The Australian. She was
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: at the Tawoma Magistrates Court for a committal hearing on Thursday,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: where a magistrate said a jury properly instructed could find
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Bruce Lammon guilty beyond reasonable doubt. That means the matter
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: now goes to trial before a jury at a date
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: yet to be set.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: She then alleges that he got on top of her
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: and penetrated her again without a condom, and had told
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: her it's okay, it's okay, and consoled her as he
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: continued to have sex with her until he ejaculated.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Laman has now been committed to stand trial on two
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: counts of rape for twice penetrating the woman, allegedly without
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: ascertaining whether she consented. The complainant says her body was
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: limp and she was not enthusiastic, but Laman persisted.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: So after this she told him that she wanted to
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: go to a chemist to get the Morning After pill.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: That's an emergency contraceptive that reduces the risk of pregnancy
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: after unprotected sex. The woman says she wasn't using any
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: form of contraception when the alleged assault occurred. The pair
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: drove in his car to the pharmacy and then on
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to McDonald's, where Lamon paid for coffee with his West
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Back Bank card. For this case, Bruce Lemon has engaged
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a Queensland criminal barrister, Andrew Haaw case. He argued on
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Lemon's behalf, there was no reason for the case to proceed,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: citing elements like messages the woman sent to friends after
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the night with Lamon in which she said she'd had
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a good night.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: The defense had argued that there was no case going forward,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and one of the points that they had suggested was
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: that when she went to get that morning After pill,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: instead of ticking a box that said she had been
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: sexually assaulted, she had ticked a box and said that
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: there was a contraception failure. So they alleged that in
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: ticking that box, she has denied that there was a
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: sexual assault that took place and she has changed her narrative.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Since a voice actor is reading the words spoken by
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Bruce Lehman's barrister in.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Court, it must be said that the ticking of the
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: boxes is quite distinct to any type of narrative being
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: asked of her or otherwise, and that is said to
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: be a contradiction of the complaint now made.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Andrew haw Casey also argued the complainant had a handful
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of opportunities to disclose the alleged assault in the days
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and weeks that followed, including at an appointment with her
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: GP where her mental health was discussed and she took
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: tests for sexually transmitted infections. The Crown prosecutor on the case,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Nicole Friederwald, said that's pretty standard behavior for a sexual
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: assault victim. A voice actor is reading the words spoken
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: by the prosecutor in court.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: The fact that she did not disclose anything immediately, whether
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: by ticking a certain box on a contraceptive checklist or
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: by telling friends or acquaintances or general practitioners in the
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: days after the offending, does not mean that it did
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: not happen, nor does it mean, in my submission, that
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: she did not hold the subjective belief at the time
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: that she had been sexually assaulted.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Friedwold pointed to a number of instances where the complainant
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: alluded to an alleged assault, including in text messages she
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: sent to a friend before making a formal complaint to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: police on November six, nearly a month after the alleged rapes.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Voice actors are reading that exchange, I just feel so shameful.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: You also need to think about whether you would ever
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: want to report this to police.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: There are options to do that anonymously too, if you're worried,
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: what do you mean?
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Reported Nicole Friedwald said. At this point, the complainant told
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the f and as a fact she'd been sexually assaulted
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and Laman had committed a crime.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: The complainant does not at that time question whether the
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: fact is true. There is no dispute by her or
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: confusion about what happened to her. Rather, what she immediately
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: says is who's going to believe me?
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Magistrate Mark Howden said the woman's story was that she
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: had no idea who Laman was until she googled Brittany
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Higgins rapist and saw an image of Laman. Earlier this year,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Mackenzie Queensland passed some of the world's most tough sexual
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: assault laws, including applying a life penalty for stealthing that's
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: tampering with or removing a condom during sex without the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: other person's knowledge. Bruce Lahman has not been charged with
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a stealthing offense, has he no, So this is two
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: charges of rape. So whilst the pair had consensual sex
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: with a condom as requested, the allegation of rape the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: following morning was that it was penetrative sex without a
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: condom that had never been applied or discussed in the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: first place. No date has been set for the trial
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and Bruce Lammon hasn't ended a plea, although he's expected
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to defend the charges coming up. How will the court
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: handle Bruce Lammon's reputation? Britain will wake up soon to
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: a new government. And at the Australian dot com do
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you right now, we've got all the expert analysis on
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: what Labour's thumping defeat of the Conservatives means for the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: rest of the world. Check it out and join our
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: subscribers to always know what you're talking about. We'll be
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: back after this break. Laman has been through this before
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: an earlier time trial for an alleged rape in the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Act Supreme Court, although in that case he was not convicted.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: That's the matter of Brittany Higgins, a fellow former Liberal
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Party staffer, who said she was raped by Laman in
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. She alleged she awoke to find Lamon having
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: sex with her, and said she repeatedly told him to stop,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: but that he didn't respond. Higgins said Laman ejaculated inside her.
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: And the first thing that sort of awoke me was
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: I was in a pain. My leg was kind of
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: being crushed. The senior staff was on top of me
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: as I woke up mid rape.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Essentially, the cases have some striking similarities, including both complainants
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: saying they were essentially asleep when intercourse began. Another similarity
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: is that Laman denies any wrongdoing. In the matter of Higgins,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: he denied any sexual activity had happened at all. In
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the Tawomba matter, he admits having sex, but says it
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: was entirely consensual. And of course, the to Womba jury
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: will be directed by the judge to put out of
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: their minds anything they know about Laman. They won't be
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: allowed to bring their preconceptions into their deliberations at all.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: The jury in the Act matter never returned a verdict,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and it's against the law to solicit information from jurors
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: about their deliberations, so we'll probably never know what their
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: decision could have been. They'd been deliberating for several days
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: when a court officer went into the jury room after
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: hours and noticed among the juror's papers a piece of
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: research material about the propensity for sexual assault claims to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: be untrue. That's a breach of the rules for jurors.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: They're not allowed to bring material into their consideration which
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: hasn't been presented to them in the courtroom. Justice Lucy
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: McCallum dismissed the jury and aborted the trial. Lambman faced
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the prospect of another trial, but then the case was
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: dropped altogether.
• 11:00
  Speaker 7: Crown Prosecutor Shane Drumgold told us this morning that he
• 11:04
  Speaker 7: received compelling medical evidence that suggested if a retrial were
• 11:09
  Speaker 7: to go ahead, there would be a significant and unacceptable
• 11:12
  Speaker 7: mental health risk to Britney Higgins's life.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Listeners to the front no, of course, that a judge
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: has found Bruce Lahmon did rape Britney Higgins. That was
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Federal Court Justice Michael Lee, who said, on the balance
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of probabilities he believed Higgins's account.
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: I'm satisfied that it is more likely than not that
• 11:32
  Speaker 8: mister Lehman's state of mind was such that he was
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to miss higgins consent,
• 11:38
  Speaker 8: and hence when he was sexual intercourse without caring whether
• 11:41
  Speaker 8: she consented. This conclusion is not mandated by but is
• 11:45
  Speaker 8: consistent with my finding the intercourse convinced when Miss Higgins
• 11:48
  Speaker 8: was not fully cognatively aware of what was happening.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Bruce Lamon is appealing that finding balance of probabilities is
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: the civil standard because that was a defamation trial. In
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the criminal courts, such as the one into Womba that
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: will hear the present rape case, the standard is beyond
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: reasonable doubt. And remember Lehman doesn't have to prove or
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: say anything. The owners is on the crown to prove
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: to the jury beyond reasonable doubt that the complainant's accusation
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: is true. One interesting choice ahead for Lahman's lawyers is
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: how they handle the matter of his reputation. Do they
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: try to hope the jurors listen to the judge when
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: he or she tells them not to bring any preconceptions
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to the trial, or do they tackle it head on
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and tell the jurors listen. You might have heard Bruce
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Lemmon's name before, and you might have some opinions about him,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: but this is about what happened on this particular night,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and being accused of one thing doesn't make you guilty
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: of another. Another choice for Lairmon is whether he continues
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: to pay a Silk, a top barrister who charges upwards
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of six thousand dollars a day in the to Womba
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: matterlready facing a huge legal bill in Sydney, having been
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: ordered by Justice Lee to pay Network ten two million
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: dollars to cover its costs and potentially more for Lisa
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Wilkinson's legal costs in that matter. Lherman did have senior
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: counsel or Silks representing him, but they were acting on
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: a no win, no fee basis. Thanks for joining us
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: on the front. Our team is Kristen Amiat, Jasper League,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Leat Sammaglu, Joshua Burton, Tiffany Demack and me Claire Harvey