Former liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s bid to use a restraining order against a reporter for alleged stalking has been thrown out.
Lehrmann launched legal action in the Hobart Magistrates Court against Karleigh Smith, a senior reporter at the NSW-based Daily Mail.
A story titled “We saw the despised boy hiding at the end of the earth”, about Lehrmann who lived in Tasmania in July in Bywelia.
Smith’s lawyer, Nic Edmondson, told the court on Thursday that the parties agreed to settle the matter and it was dismissed.
Magistrate Jackie Hartnett thanked the parties for their “hard work” and said there would be no application for costs.
A hearing for the matter is expected to be held on Thursday. Lehrmann was not in court and his attorney, Zali Baurrows, attended via Zoom.
Holes previously told the court Smith and a photo “dangerously” followed Lehrmann in a car, including a driveway.
Lehrmann in July unsuccessfully applied for an interim restraining order against Smith.
Burrows said the order was sought because of “not just the stalk” but also because of the incident’s impact on Lehrmann’s mental health.
“Why would a reporter be sitting in a car following a person following itself? That could have caused an accident,” Burrows said in July.
Edmondson said there was a journalistic exemption under the legal definition of stalking and that Smith had the right to follow Lehrmann, take photos and report to him.
Gehrmann also said the psychological harm was also damaging because Smith appeared to have deliberately engaged in a NSW legal practice that had been used in the past.
In a separate magistrates’ court case, Lehrmann could be arrested if he doesn’t appear in court every December he stole the 4WD in southern Tasmania.
Lehrmann missed a scheduled appearance on November 7, with the magistrate ordering him to provide a doctor’s certificate to prove he has medical issues.
The 30-year-old denied stealing the car. Many Witnesses are likely to testify at the expected hearing.
Lehrmann made headlines in 2021 when he was accused of raping fellow Liberal staffer Brittany Higgiament House.
A 2022 trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct. The Federal Court in 2024 found on a balance of probabilities that rape had occurred.
Abandoned by the Federal Court’s Cefortiation Suit of the Network Lehda Wilkinson, but he has always denied the allegations and appealed the decision with the decision of the end of the end who appealed the end of the question of the end of the appeal of the end of the end.