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