Bruce Lehrmann touches down in Brisbane as he faces his second allegation of rape in court

EXCLUSIVE

Bruce Lehrmann has touched down in Brisbane just hours before he faces court over two rape charges for the first time.

The former Liberal staffer will appear in Toowoomba Magistrate's Court at 9am on Monday over allegations that he raped a woman, 29, who he met at at local strip club called 'The Vault' in October 2021.

Just two months earlier, he had been charged with sexually assaulting his former colleague Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019.

The woman, who can't be identified for legal reasons, claimed they went back to his friend's house after the strip club, they kissed in bed and she told him to put a condom on, but alleged she woke up to find him having sex with her.

She also alleges that she woke up the following morning to find him having sex with her, and felt groggy when they had sex a third time. He allegedly wasn't wearing a condom and they went to buy the morning after pill.

On Sunday afternoon, Lehrmann was spotted for the first time since his crushing defamation defeat in April, when a Federal Court judge found on a civil scale that he had raped Ms Higgins.

Upon arriving at Brisbane Airport with a small wheelie suitcase, and sporting a RM Williams hat and boots, he was greeted by his lawyer Rowan King.

The pair made a beeline for the carpark before the two-hour trip to Lehrmann's hometown, Toowoomba, where he will face a half-day committal hearing on Monday.

During the hearing, the alleged victim will be cross-examined by Lehrmann's lawyers in an effort to determine whether there is enough evidence for a magistrate to commit the matter to trial.

Lehrmann would only have to enter a plea if the case was committed, but it is understood that he intends to plead not guilty.

The court previously heard the prosecution and defence agreed on points of cross-examination. Lehrmann's team had sought and received data from the alleged victim's phone.

Despite being charged with rape in January 2023, Lehrmann has not appeared in person at the court in Toowoomba.

When he was first charged, previous legislation said Lehrmann could not be identified because Queensland banned the media from publicly identifying alleged sex offenders unless matters were committed to trial.

Those laws changed in October, which meant Lehrmann could be named and pictured even though the matter had not been committed.

Lehrmann was tried over Ms Higgins' rape in the ACT Supreme Court in October 2022, but the case collapsed due to misconduct by a member of the jury.

The charge was then dropped by the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions in December 2022 over fears for Ms Higgins' mental health.

Last year, Lehrmann launched a defamation case against Network Ten and The Project host Lisa Wilkinson over the original interview with Ms Higgins in February 2021, during which she aired her rape claims for the first time.

He wasn't named in the broadcast, but claimed friends and colleagues were able to identify him as Ms Higgins' rapist.

However, the defamation action backfired when Justice Michael Lee found, on a balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins in much the way she described during her television interview.

Photographers chased Lehrmann out of the court and along the highway, up to Avoca on the Central Coast, before he sought refuge inside a police station.

Lehrmann lodged an appeal in the Federal Court in May,