Lehrmann a court no-show on vehicle theft charge
Bruce Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to stealing a Toyota Prado in 2024, but neither the 30-year-old nor his high-profile lawyer appeared in court.
Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows has been issued a broadside after the pair failed to appear in court on a car-stealing charge.
The former political staffer was listed to appear in Hobart Magistrates Court on Thursday.
However, the 30-year-old didn’t appear and attempts to get Burrows, a high-profile Sydney solicitor, by phone were unsuccessful, leaving the police prosecutor and magistrate Robert Webster unimpressed.
“From emails … she doesn’t understand the purpose of this court at all,” Webster said.
He said Burrows told her she misunderstood whether the morning’s appearance was a hearing or a mention.
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He also said Lehrmann was “not available today due to urgent medical issues slash tests”, according to Burrows, who sought an adjournment.
Lehrmann did appear in the Federal Court across town in Hobart on Tuesday on a separate matter relating to alleged misappropriations of secret documents related to French submarines in 2019.
On Thursday, police prosecutor Bunewat Keo said he was ready to proceed and was “unsure why [Burrows] was not answering her phone” after email correspondence earlier in the day.
“We have a strong prima facie case,” he told the court.
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Keo also said he had limited ground to oppose a delay to offer Lehrmann “procedural fairness”.
The matter was stood down, with Webster signalling he would make further attempts to raise Burrows.
Lehrmann has denied stealing a Toyota Prado at remote Mountain River in southern Tasmania on November 20, 2024.
The car owner and her family, a service station worker and five police officers are expected to give evidence in the case, which is expected to take four days.
At a previous hearing, Burrows signalled she would be challenging the Prado owner’s statement to police on the grounds it was different to assertions made in media interviews.
The former Liberal staffer has been the subject of various court matters since a 2019 alleged rape of then-colleague Brittany Higgins.
While a trial was abandoned in 2022 due to juror misconduct, the Federal Court in 2024 found on the balance of probabilities the rape did occur, dismissing his defamation suit against Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson.
Lehrmann has appealed against the defamation loss.
-with AAP
