Bruce Lehrmann faces Toowoomba Magistrates Court on rape ...

• In short: Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann is appearing at a Toowoomba court for the first time since he was charged with two counts of rape in December 2022.
• The rapes are alleged to have occurred in Toowoomba in October 2021 and were first mentioned in court in January 2023.
• What's next? The complainant is facing cross-examination in a closed court.

The complainant in a rape case against former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has begun giving evidence in his committal hearing in a closed court in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

The court has ordered that Mr Lehrmann be obscured from the woman's view during her evidence.

She is testifying via video link from a remote location.

Magistrate Mark Howden refused an application from the media to be permitted to remain in the courtroom for the complainant's evidence or to observe from another location.

He said that while he accepted the principal of open justice and acknowledged the high public interest in the case, he was not persuaded to rule for the media to be allowed to report.

Magistrate Howden said the matter should proceed in the ordinary way, in a closed court, and he dismissed the application.

Earlier, crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told the court there was an application for special measures to be implemented during the complainant's evidence, which was not opposed by the defence.

This included that Mr Lehrmann be obscured from the complainant's view while she gives her evidence.

The magistrate said Mr Lehrmann could sit in the body of the court so as to be obscured from the view of the complainant.

The court closed at 10:30am for the complainant to begin her evidence.

Mr Lehrmann, 29, arrived at the Toowoomba Magistrates Court shortly after 8:30am, with his solicitor Rowan King.

It is the first time Mr Lehrmann has appeared personally at the court, on Queensland's Darling Downs, since he was charged with two counts of rape in December 2022.

The rapes are alleged to have occurred in Toowoomba in October 2021 and were first mentioned in court in January 2023.

As he walked in through the media scrum, reporters heard Mr Lehrmann say, "Where's Peter Costello when you need him?"

He was referencing the former federal treasurer and chairman of Nine Entertainment, who allegedly pushed a journalist at Canberra Airport earlier this month.

Mr Costello later stepped down from his position.

At previous court hearings, Mr Lehrmann's legal team sought and received a data download from the complainant's mobile phone, but no details of the allegations against Mr Lehrmann have yet been aired in open court.

When Mr Lehrmann was first charged in relation to the matter, he could not be publicly identified or named due to now superseded legislation which prevented the identification of those charged with prescribed sexual offences until after their committal for trial.

The law changed last October, allowing identification. 

Mr Lehrmann's lawyers sought a non-publication order but this was denied by a Supreme Court judge.