You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play the news from the Australian. From the Australian. Here's what's on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, June eighteenth. The family of murder victim Lynnett Sims have launched an impassioned defense of Lynn's law and nobody no Parole law designed to keep her killer Chris Dawson behind bars unless
he reveals what he did with Lynd's remains. A campaign supported by wrongly convicted women Kathleen Folbey and Lindy Chamberlain is demanding a repeal of the New South Wales law. Bud greg and Marilyn Sims say the families of homicide victims deserve certainty. Would scrap offshore wind projects in Australia. National's leader David Little Proud says renewables must be on
rooftops where the environment can't be destroyed. It comes after Labour declared an offshore wind zone twenty kilometers off the Illawarra coast in New South Wales. Chinese officials have attempted to block an Australian journalist at a press conference in Parliament House with visiting Chinese Premier Lie Chung and Anthony Albanizi.
Extraordinary scenes unfolded as Australian officials physically blocked the Chinese personnel from obstructing Chung, who spent nearly three years in a Chinese jail and now works at Sky News Australia. Anthony Albanezi said he didn't see what was going on.
Look, I'm not aware of those issues. It's important that people be allowed to participate fully and that's what should happen in this building or anywhere else in Australia.
The visit is a big deal for Australia, with Premier Lee saying the relationship is on the right track and announcing Australian nationals will be allowed to enter China for holidays or work without needing a visa. That story is live now at the Australian dot Com dot a You Bruce Lahman will fight to have sexual assault charges against him thrown out of court. Media organizations were booted out of court into Woomba on Monday when a complainant alleged
Laman sexually assaulted her in twenty twenty one. Today, why Laman is arguing, there's no case to answer. I'm buzzing this morning. I've been since the crack of dawn. Those were the words spoken by Bruce Lahman as he made his way into the to Woomba Magistrates Court on Monday morning. They're being read by a voice actor.
Hey, Bruce, what happened that night?
The former Liberal staffer was surrounded by a media scrum that had descended on the Queensland city. Have been the targets. There's Peter Costello when you need him. Laman was referring there to a physical altercation between the former nine chairmen and a reporter from The Australian at Canberra Airport. Lea Mendez was knocked to the ground while trying to question Costello about allegations of bullying and harassment at the TV network.
Twenty nine year old Laman is changed with two counts of rape relating to an incident that's alleged to have happened in his hometown to Woomba in October twenty twenty one. He's yet to formally enter a plea, but will defend the charges. It was Lahman's first appearance in these proceedings. He came with a silk Andrew Hawkka c who's gone in with an aggressive approach. He'll be arguing the whole matter should be thrown out after what unfolded on Monday.
Laws in place in Queensland prior to October meant people accused of sexual assault couldn't be named until a matter was committed to trial. Committal is a process in a lower court where the evidence is tested. If the magistrate believes the case should proceed, it goes to a higher court where it's heard before judge and jury. Lhman's lawyers fought his identification for weeks after the law was scrapped, but the Queensland Supreme Court allowed him to be named.
A high profile person charged with two counts of rape in the regional Queensland city of Toowomba can finally be named as Farmer Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lherman.
Twomber Court House isn't typically known for these sorts of high profile cases.
McKenzie scot is a reporter with be Australian. She was into Womba for the hearing.
So the public gallery only had sixteen seats and they were full almost immediately, so we had people fitting five to a roll four. We had people standing in the middle of the courtroom. At the back we had people sitting on the floor. It was quite a sight to see. I don't think these courtrooms are really set up for these types of notorious cases.
News organizations, including News Corps Australia, which publishes The Australian Nine, and BABC applied to be present while the complainant, a twenty eight year old woman, gave evidence. She was cross examined by Council for Lairman, giving evidence over about an hour. A barrister for the news outlets, Jessica Goldie, argued it was important for journalists to hear the complainant's evidence so it could be accurately reported.
It's an important fundamental proposition to our legal system. This matter is a unique case which has attracted a high degree of national interest in media coverage. There is therefore a high public interest in the matter.
But Lairman's defense lawyer Andrewhaw and Crown Prosecutor Nicole Friedwald both opposed the application. Both said they were concerned the details of the complainant's evidence in chief and cross examination would make it easy for her to be identified.
So obviously in these sort of matters the law does protect a complainant coming forward, so to encourage others to come forward in these sorts of cases, our legal presentation did put forward alternatives, saying we could be in a separate courtroom as she gave her evidence via video link, or we could be obscured from view, but both the Crown and the defense were concerned about privacy and the fact that she may be identified via the evidence that she was providing.
Magistrate Mark Howden ultimately blocked the application, meaning members of the media, including Mackenzie, were sent out of the courtroom while the complainant gave her evidence.
So it was frustrating for journalists not to be in the room as the complainant gave her evidence, but I think it was largely expected. Queensland courts have lacked transparency in the past and this matter does though par for the course of what to expect when covering these sorts of cases in Queensland.
Magistrate Howden acknowledged the high degree of public interest in this case and accepted the principle of open justice, but he said it doesn't overrule the complainant's right to privacy in a proceeding like this, so.
It was all very quick. We were in there by two and out of there by two ten pm. Basically once we got back in the room, mister Lehman's barrister, Andrew Hall Casey, told the court that they would be making a submission to basically say there is no case to move forward to trial. Mister Lehman's defense did say that the twelve page submission would have some density and it would highlight the insufficient evidence within Queensland Police's case.
Behind closed doors, the complainant laid out her allegations against Bruce Lammon. Charges were first laid in January twenty twenty three. According to police documents, the complainant heard about allegations against Bruce Lammon by Brittney Higgins that prompted the to Womber woman to identify Laman as the man she had a
sexual encounter with in October twenty twenty one. The matter heard on Monday in too Woomba is unrelated to the earlier allegation and the proceedings that have unfolded in the years since. In this matter, the complainant says she met Laman at a strip club in twenty twenty one, where he introduced himself as Bryce. To Womba is Laman's hometown, and it's believed he was staying with his mother when
this incident is alleged to have occurred. He was on bail at the time, having just appeared in court over an allegation made by Brittney Higgins that he raped her in Parliament House in early twenty nineteen. That trial was sensationally aborted in late twenty twenty two Good Evening.
In an extraordinary turn of events, the rape trial of former Liberal staff at Bruce Lherman has been aborted after a dura's misconduct was discovered by a court sheriff.
That's when Bruce lamb ensued Network ten and Wilkinson for defamation. The allegation made by Brittney Higgins was found on the balance of probabilities to be true by Justice Michael Lee in the Federal Court defamation proceedings brought by Laman against Network ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson. The complainant in the Tawomba matter, says she had consensual sex with Laman on the night they met and twice the next morning, but that he failed to use a condom despite her expectation
that he do so. She says she never consented to unprotected intercourse, and if her allegation is proven, it's technically considered rape under Queensland law. Colloquially it's called stealthing and it was formally criminalized in Queensland in March as part of sweeping reforms to the way alliations of sexual assault and coercive control are treated by the justice system. Coming up Bruce Lemmon's bid to get the whole matter thrown out. We'll be back after this break. So there's still lots
of unanswered questions, aren't there, Mackenzie. You haven't been allowed to see the police brief of evidence, you haven't been allowed to hear the complainant's claims about what happened that night. So what do we know about what the magistrate's going to do in terms of committing this to trial or not.
The matter has been adjourned until July fourth. At that time we will reconvene and the submission put forward by the defense will be considered by the magistrate. The Crown will have to provide its response in writing by July three, so we should at that point know whether or not this matter will pre scene to a jury trial.
Bruce Lehmon appears to have depleted his funds in the other legal actions that he's had on foot. He's now representing himself in the appeal in the federal court. He's got a case in this case which, if he's paying those bills will already be running well into the multiple tens of thousands of dollars. How did he see him on his way out of court?
Those questions were put to him as he was leaving by waiting journalists, but there was no response for mister Lhman at all. He just walked straight to his lawyer's car, and then as they were driving off, they beat the horn and waived at journalists as they walked past.
It's quite an unusual scene, isn't it. Probably not what you're expecting when you went to cover a sexual assault matter this morning.
It was a bit surprising, but we know that this case was meant to be three hours, and now we're going into two days. We keep getting Kurbbull's thrown in us, so let's just see what happens when we come back next month. Mister Lehman won't have to be in the court room next time. He has been given permission to appear via video link or via telephone, so I don't expect we'll have this same sort of media circus again next time.
Mackenzie Scot is a journalist with The Australian. The Reserve Bank Board meets on Tuesday morning and is expected to hold the cash rate at four point three five percent for a fifth consecutive month. You can follow the decision live at the Australian dot com dot au