The identity of a high-profile man accused of rape will remain secret for at least another week after he was granted a new interim order. The man remains on bail and faces two counts of raping a woman in Toowoomba in October 2021.
In Queensland, accused sex offenders can now be named before they’re committed to stand trial. This comes after changes to the state’s Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act that came into effect on Tuesday.
The unnamed man’s case has been mentioned in court since January, but under previous legislation, his identity was suppressed.
The alleged victim in the rape case has told prosecutors she wants the man to be identified under these new state laws.
However, on Friday, the man’s lawyer, Rowan King, successfully obtained a Supreme Court injunction– an interim measure to keep the man’s identity suppressed until the matter could be fully heard in Toowoomba.
Magistrate Kay Philipson criticised the man’s legal team for several actions– seeking a similar order in the supreme court last week without telling her, not following a direction to provide notice for the new application and not providing supporting material in a timely manner.
It was also revealed in court that the defendant had been seeing a psychologist, who provided a letter mentioning suicidal ideation. This letter formed part of his suppression order application, however, Philipson said there was nothing substantial in the letter to support its claims.
“This is nothing more than a letter of comfort,” she said. “There’s nothing on how the psychologist arrived at the diagnosis nor what effects of being identified will be and how they are going to impact him.”
King said he’d wanted to submit a more substantive report on his client’s health but it had not been ready on time.
Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedwald said she opposed granting the interim. Barrister Jessica Goldie, who represented several media companies including the Guardian Australia, Nine TV network, Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian and Courier-Mail newspapers, also opposed.
Philipson granted the interim non-publication order, saying she needed to weigh up the public interest and principle of open justice versus any special vulnerabilities of the alleged victim and defendant as well as the potential to prejudice any future trial.
An application on a permanent order could be heard on 13 October.